Intervention of Egypt at CEDAW General discussion

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1- Egypt has witnessed notable progress on women’s empowerment and

gender equality agenda during the past 8 years, which is backed by a
strong political will to fulfill women’s constitutional rights, and a clear
commitment translated into strategies and programs implemented by
the government.
2- Such rights are stipulated in the Egyptian Constitution of 2014, which
emphasized the values of justice and equality before law in the rights,
and it included more than 20 Constitutional provisions that guarantee
the rights of women in all spheres of life. The constitution also ensured
equality between women and men in all civil, political, economic, social
and cultural rights.
3- Keen to provide adequate opportunities to empower women and
ensure their inclusion in society, the Egyptian Government has
adopted, in collaboration with the National Council for Women
(NCW) the "Women's Vision 2030" which is an expanded partnership
to achieve a national strategy to empower the Egyptian women by
2030, in accordance with the Constitution, Egypt's "Vision 2030", as
well as the Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Recently, Egypt launched its National Human Rights Strategy (2021-
2026), which has dedicated an essential pillar for the human rights of
women.
4- Egypt has made important strides on the promotion of women’s
representation in political and public life over the last eight years.
Women Participation is not just a right, but also a key to sustainable
development. The President of Egypt’s will to advance women
political empowerment and to ensure their representation in all sectors
without discrimination is evidently granted. The constitutional rights
of women have been translated into laws, strategies and executive
programs. Witnessing a constitutional quota that guarantees the
presence of 25% of women in Parliament, 25% in local councils, 10%
in the Senate, and tangible representation in the boards of directors of
financial companies and within the banking sector.
5- During the past years, the actual percentage of women’s
representation in the Egyptian Parliament increased to 28%, and the
President multiplied appointments in the Senate reaching 14%. Also,
women’s percentage in the Cabinet reached 25%, 56% in diplomacy,
27% in the positions of vice-ministers, and 31% as deputy governors.
6- For the first time ever, women were appointed as Advisor to the
President of the Republic for National Security, Governor, President
of Economic Court, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, President
of the National Council for Human Rights, members of the Senate. In
 2021, and after long years of struggle, women judges were chosen as
prosecutors in the State Council and the Public Prosecution.
7- In the Judicial sphere: in 2021, the President encouraged, through the
Ministry of Justice, the Egyptian Council of State and the Public
Prosecution to appoint female judges, for the first time ever, in order
to achieve the constitutional goal of gender equality and non-
discrimination against women, such as:
a. The President issued two directives appointing 137 female
judges from the State Lawsuits Authority and the
Administrative Prosecution, in the State Council, for the first
time.
b. The Supreme Judicial Council decided to transfer 17 female
judges from the ordinary judiciary to work in the Public
Prosecution, and on July 1, 2022, a Presidential decree was
issued appointing 73 female members of the Administrative
Prosecution and State Lawsuits Authority in the ordinary
judiciary.
c. The number of women in the Administrative Prosecution
Authority increased to 2,315, a 44% increase, and in the State
Lawsuits Authority to 1,004, a 32% increase.
8- A Presidential decree was issued in December 2021 and a woman is
now chairing the National Council for Human Rights, for the first time
since the Council’s establishment. Furthermore, women represent 44%
of its members.
9- Egypt’s ranking improved in international indicators related to
women’s political empowerment, such as:
a- It advanced 48 places in the indicator of political empowerment of
women in the Global Gender Gap Report, reaching its best ranking
in ten years; occupying the 78th place in 2022 compared to 125th in
2012.
b- Additionally, Egypt advanced 65 places in the indicator of women’s
representation in Parliament, occupying the 63rd position in 2022
compared to 128th in 2012. (The current percentage of women
representatives is 28% of the Parliament, compared to 1.5 % in the
2012 parliament).
c- Egypt advanced 29 positions in the indicator of women’s
occupation of ministerial positions; occupying the 66th position in
2022, compared to the 95th position in 2012. It is also worth noting
that women continue to have a strong presence in the Government,
as six women held ministerial positions in the cabinet (since August
2022).

d- National Identity Cards were issued for free to poor women and girls in
various governorates within “Your ID is Your Right” project to
 promote
women’s political participation and their economic and social
empowerment, and to ensure that women and the family make use of
the governmental services and different forms of state’s subsidies. The
total number of national ID cards reached one million in February
2022.
:To conclude
- We believe that no progress can be realized without the full
participation of women, whose role is needed for attaining the goals
in the development agenda (Egypt’s strategy 2030) as well as UN
developmental goals. This was highlighted in the last periodic
report submitted to CEDAW as well as in the discussion and our
detailed answers and discussion with the distinguished experts
during the 2020 session.
- We appreciate the CEDAW’s Initiative and thank the Committee
for the concept note elaborated. The general recommendation will
be a road map helping and encouraging state parties to consider
working on specific steps enabling them to realize the full
participation of women in political and public life; as well as
occupying high positions in international, regional and diplomatic
circles.
- The work will be an added value to CEDAW previous activities
during the past 40 years for the benefit of women and the
generations to come.

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