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The Egyptian Center For Housing Rights |
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World Organisation Against Torture
As mentioned, international jurisprudence has already established that the practice of forced eviction and house demolitions, as in the present pattern, constitutes a form of cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In many of the cases cited here, officials executed demolition orders despite the presence of court injunctions and acquittals of victims from charges of agricultural land-use violations. In some instances, official behavior deteriorated beyond ignoring court orders to violent contempt of court and the rule of law when they overtly and physically destroyed court judgment papers in the case of the Khaddariya village. In general, these demolitions are being conducted without prior notification and include the use of force by State agents, who are humiliating and beating the victims, including children and women, and threatening them of retaliation in order to compel them to sign false statements. Moreover, these demolitions and evictions are, in most cases, conducted in front of the victims, the victims being sometimes in their houses when the security forces give the order to demolish the house. In addition, inadequate precautions are being taken to secure the safety of the victims. In the cases of Duweiqa, Port-Said and the fawakhir community (Old Cairo), public servants and accompanying security forces did not provide the necessary treatment to save those who were beaten, bitten by scorpions, or who suffered from suffocation from tear gas. Moreover, the longer-term consequences involve respiratory diseases, dermatological problems, dismal environmental-health conditions and infections due to the victims’ treatment. Including their being dumped in a notorious waste-disposal site. As highlighted by the above mentioned cases, the affected persons are mainly poor communities, which are left with no alternative whatsoever following the demolitions/evictions, all their belongings being destroyed and no compensation or resettlement being provided by the authorities. Accordingly, the house demolitions and forced evictions carried out by State agents the victims in serious destitution and deprive them from their livelihood, shelter and belongings, with no available recourses. Moreover, the way demolitions and evictions are being carried out, in many cases without prior notification, using force, ill-treatment, humiliation and threats also constitute additional factors of suffering. These different elements highlight the degree of suffering, both physical and psychological, brought by these policies. Consequently, the fact that the implementation of such measure by State agents results in situations of extreme suffering allows to conclude that they constitute a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, in violation of article 16 of the Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman of Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which states that " Each State Party shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1, when such acts are committed by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. In particular, the obligations contained in articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 shall apply with the substitution for references to torture of references to other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. In order to arrive at solutions to this grave pattern of state behavior, it is important to understand the causes and climate leading to the occurrence of such cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In a country where basic shelter needs take on biblical proportions, Egypt’s recent economic-reform program made freehold and leasehold tenure much more difficult not only for poor sectors of the population, but also for middle sectors that do not find housing for new-generation families, except in shanty towns. Economics experts affirm that the economic reform policy resulted in "reducing real wages" among workers and employees. Thus, families cannot allocate sufficient portions of their income to acquire housing because they cannot give up their basic needs, such as food, transportation, necessary medicine, etc. Housing experts estimate that to own an apartment, an Egyptian citizen must work, along with his wife and children for 11 years, provided their whole income is dedicated for this purpose. This is practically impossible since citizens cannot give up their basic needs. The Egyptian population is now divided into two categories: the first category already has housing, paid for either by frozen or changing rent or through ownership. The second category does not have housing and is unable to acquire the rent or ownership value. This latter category represents a social bomb about to explode. In summary, the economic reform period escalated the housing problem for the poor and middle sectors of the Egyptian population, particularly after the state withdrew from the field of economic (social) housing, expanding in the construction of luxury housing. This deepened the real estate market crisis, which, in turn, resulted in the presence of great supply of luxury buildings met with great demand on low and medium cost units. Housing experts in Egypt describe the housing crises as "houses without tenants and tenants without houses" There was an increase in the number of closed "unused" housing units, coinciding with an increase in the number of citizens suffering from the absence of suitable housing. This is reflected in the emergence of random housing patterns, such as shantytowns, shacks, boats, garages and cemeteries. This phenomenon is the characteristic of the cities of Cairo. On the other hand, state economic trends and conflicting laws resulted in the deterioration of real estate due to declining obligations for private-sector or government proprietors to carry out maintenance of housing. This is reflected in 111,875 demolition orders issued for houses about to collapse, 69,628 of which (62%) were implemented. Thus, we can understand the climate prevailing in the housing sector in Egypt, which often leads citizens to "break" the law by building on state property, arbitrary construction or living in shacks and cemeteries. Their tenure is de facto under constant threat. Even recognized tenure of the dwelling is no safeguard for the poor inhabitant. They were left no other alternative but to scratch out an existence and build where the scantiest opportunity allows. However, in such conditions of deprivation, blaming the victim undermines justice at large. This State Party officially prefers to apply violence to ensure the deeper poverty of its most-vulnerable citizens, devil-may-care the human, consequences of these continuing policies. In the light of the precedent developments, OMCT and ECHR call upon the Committee: - to conclude that the policy of houses demolitions and forced evictions constitutes a breach of Article 16; - to conclude that the policy of house demolitions and forced evictions has involved several specific cases of ill-treatment amounting to violations of Article 16; - to call for an immediate halt to this policy of house demolitions and forced evictions; - to call on the State Party to compensate the victims of forced evictions, house demolition and related injuries and violations; - to demand that the Egyptian Government and its agents respect court ruling, especially injunctions against the implementation of eviction and demolition orders; - to urge the Egyptian Government to review its housing policy, which creates a trap for poor people to “break” the law in order to obtain the simplest shelter; - to demand that the State Party provides training to police officers, officials, judges on human rights, with a view to protecting economic and social human rights, upon which majority of Egyptians depend for their survival;
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