Hossam Bahgat: Better human rights provisions only go so far

“This is what we see unfolding: an attempt to protect the regime from the democratic spell that is coming its way – one way or the other,” said Hossam Bahgat, prominent human rights activist and lawyer who ended yesterday his mission as executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), which he founded. Today, Bahgat said he is going to head the EIPR Board of Trustees and dedicate more time and effort to field research and advocacy — both of which he finds to be pressing in a society facing “very disturbing human rights challenges."

The rise of sentiments hostile to human rights is what is most disturbing for Bahgat, who never compromised in his vocal criticism of the ousted regimes of presidents Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi, nor under military rule in the interim phase between the two.

Speaking to Ahram Online as the draft constitution was being finalised, Bahgat said it was fair to commend the efforts exerted to draft an array of human rights provisions in the new constitution that are ultimately “better than those we have seen in the constitution of 2012.”

(2013-12-01/ahram)