Topic: Rights of Accused
Country: Egypt
Delegate Name: Jaire Byers
School: Grand Blanc High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Egypt position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The rights of persons accused are relevant to every country, for the proper implementation of just judicial procedure is based firmly in a government's duty to protect its citizens—innocent or otherwise. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) provides guidelines for such procedures that include rights such as the right to a fair trial, the right to equal protection under the law, and the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty, among others. Among the different ways that each country further defines and implements such procedures, there remain certain disparities between the UDHR and each country's own law and practices that human rights organizations dispute.
Within the Arab Republic of Egypt, accused persons are required to be brought before a magistrate and formally charged within forty-eight hours or released. They are granted the right to post bail and to be defended by a legal counsel; however, the Emergency Law of 1958 delineates certain judicial procedures for special cases—such as those that threaten national security—in which such rights may not be granted. Usually such cases involve Islamic extremists. Criminal law in Egypt clearly diverges from the standards suggested by the UDHR, but each nation's circumstances are different, and each should reserve the right to exercise sovereign judgment in defining and implementing its own judicial system.
In the discussion of the rights of the accused and the subsequent resolutions, Egypt warns the United Nations to be careful of over-monitoring judicial systems in a wasteful fashion that may even affect the efficacy of such systems—or may even infringe upon national sovereignty. Nonetheless, Egypt encourages the United Nations to keep the ultimate purpose of criminal law in mind as resolutions are drafted—protecting a nation's citizens.
