In
response to the Egyptian government’s continuous neglect and intransigence toward
the legitimate claims of the Egyptian Nubian community to their right of return
to their original homes and lands of habitual residence, yesterday morning,
more than 400 members of the Nubian community gathered in a peaceful march toward
Furqundi and Toshka districts in protest against the government annexation of around
110 thousand feddans (114,200 acres) of those lands into the 1.5 million-feddan
(1,038,000-acre) Toshka land-reclamation project.
The
march was taken by surprise when an Egyptian police road block prevented the protesters
from reaching their original villages, serving “high-level” orders to the
marchers to go back and stop their march at Karkar village, 200 kilometers away
from Furqundi village in Toshka. However, the protesters decided to stage a sit-in
on the road, while the Egyptian security forces surrounded them, denying food
and water to the protesters.
Other
protest actions by the Nubian community then broke out across Aswan Governorate,
and the Egyptian police used force against the protestors, causing injuries to
three persons in al-Karur, south Aswan. Police shot one of the young men was
shot in the shoulder, and another in the hand, requiring urgent surgical
treatment. The third was wounded superficially. All three are currently in
stable condition.
The
protesters officially had requested a permit to organize a demonstration for Thursday,
17 November 2016 in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, the official body
undertaking to sell the contested lands at public auction. The Egyptian security
refused to authorize the demonstration on the basis that the security situation
in the country does not permit. Based on administrative order 8002 (2016), the local
Duqqi Police Station obtained the Nubian’s pledge on 16 November not to gather
in the area of the Ministry of Agriculture or organize any events calling for such
demonstration, or else bear the legal consequences for any breach.
The
1.5 million feddan (1,038,000 acre) “Egyptian Countryside” reclamation project in
question is not the first attempt by the present Egyptian government to grab the
Nubian community’s historical lands. In December 2014, the Egyptian president
issued Decree
No. 444 to redefine the border regions of the Republic of
Egypt, declaring 16 Nubian villages as militarized borders zones. This contravened
the Nubians’ constitutional right of return and restricted their constitutional
right to freedom of movement in border zones 110 kilometers east and 25 kilometers west of Lake
Nasser.
These
practices represent serious violations of the 2014 Egyptian Constitution, which
enshrines the Nubians’ right of return to their land and villages under Article
236. They also violate Articles 14, 19, 20, 21 of The African Charter on Human and People Rights,
which treaty Egypt ratified in 1984.
Notably,
the most-recent recommendations
of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights advised Egypt to take
further steps to ensure security of tenure of housing and lands, especially for
vulnerable groups, and that persons affected by forced evictions have access to
“adequate remedy, restitution of their property, and compensation” (para. 20).
These measures are required for Egypt to meet its obligations under the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the state
ratified in 1982.
Therefore,
the Egyptian Center for Civil and Legislative Reform expresses its solidarity with
the demands of the Nubian protesters, which call for:
· Excluding
the land in the Nubian areas from the 1.5 million-feddan reclamation project,
in order that they be used as areas of resettlement to build Nubian villages
with full services;
· Giving
the priority for Nubian people in Aswan Governorate to access the Toshka land
under the reclamation project;
· Implementing
Article 236 of the Egyptian Constitution and creating the Higher Committee on Resettlement
and Development of the Nubian Villages; and
· Amending
Decree No. 444 in conformity with the Egyptian Constitution and historical
rights of Nubians as indigenous people.