ACIJLP

The ACIJLP calls on the Minister of Justice to appoint a judicial committee to oversee the Bar Association, and to hold the elections

Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal
Profession (ACIJLP) has learnt about a ruling made by the Cairo Court of
Appeals on 12 August 1999 stating that the Minister of Justice is the
person responsible for appointing a judicial committee to oversee the
Bar Association.  This ruling was made in a lawsuit brought by a lawyer
to determine the person or area in charge of appointing such a
committee.

It must be noted that a ruling was made by the same court on 13 July
1999 ordering the removal of the sequestration imposed on the Bar.
Following this ruling, the ACIJLP made a statement in which it announced
the ruling to be a sort of predicament.  The center asserted that
without determining ways of implementation, and ordering the holding of
elections, this ruling would be just a predicament and an insufficient
step that would add more complications to the situation.

Although it has always affirmed that the government is the party behind
the Bar crisis, and that the intervention of the Minister of Justice
could be a direct intervention by the government in the affairs of the
Bar, the center calls on the Minister of Justice to promptly take the
practical measures necessary for the implementation of the ruling, and
to appoint a judicial committee to oversee the Bar Association until
elections are held.

The ACIJLP calls on the Ministry of Justice to take serious steps to put
an end to the crisis of the Bar Association by appointing a judicial
committee to supervise its affairs.  It also calls on the government not
to take any measure that would hamper the holding of the elections.
Since the imposition of sequestration on the Bar more than three years
now, lawyers in Egypt have been deprived of all their syndical rights.
Moreover, in blatant violation of the United Nations Basic Principles on
the Role of Lawyers, two general assemblies were prevented by force
during these years.

This document is published online by Derechos Human Rights