Egypt to establish family care fund under new personal status law

CAIRO – 24 December 2022: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ordered establishing a new fund for family care and a policy document to support families in the face of personal status challenges as he reviewed on Saturday the country’s personal status draft law.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Minister of Justice Omar Marwan, Sisi ordered securing funding sources for the new fund with the aim of preserving family cohesion and the future of the future generations, the Presidency said in a statement.

Sisi ordered drafting the new law in a simple and detailed way to make sure that all people, especially those who are not working in legal issues, can understand its provisions.

The new draft law gives new powers for judges to deal with urgent cases with the aim of supporting families.

The new draft law also sets a new system that brings together all legal disputes related to each family in one court and introduces new measures to curb divorce, the statement said.

Also, the new draft law will seek to protect the financial property of spouses and the share of each of them in the wealth they formed during marriage.

The new draft law will also include the reformulation of marriage and divorce certificates so that they include what the spouses have agreed upon during marriage or divorce.

Documentation of divorce will also be part of the new draft law, the statement said, noting that the law does not require women to have any commitments before the date of her knowledge of divorce.

So far, the committee drafting the new law has held 20 meetings and drafted 188 articles while the preliminary draft of the law is being completed, the statement said.

The new law would replace six current laws in this regard, added the statement.

In October, Justice Minister Marwan said a new family law will be issued to ensure transparency in marriage and find solutions to the problems of divorce.

The new Personal Status Law has triggered controversy last year on several provisions, including those related to alimony.