In August 30th 2016 a new law was passed by the parliament in Tunis
Egypt: New Church Law Discriminates Against Christians
In August 30th 2016 a new law was passed by the parliament in Tunis. This new law carries restriction on the constructions and renewal of the churches in which discriminated against the Christian in Egypt.
The recent incidents of anti-Christian violence which left one person dead and several injuries. Many properties were destroyed due to this incident which was caused by some local Muslims over the renovation of the churches. Authorities have made arrest which caused even more suspect and anger along Muslims in which resulted Christians to be targeted for their violence crimes.
‘’Many Egyptians hoped that governments would respect and protect freedom of religion,including for Christians after the 2011 uprising’’.
The new law allows governs to decline church construction permits with no right to appeal. However, Christians believed that this decision may prevents Muslims from violent mobs.
Estimates of the size of Egypt’s Christian population, the great majority of them Coptic Orthodox, range from 6% to10% of the total population of 93 million. Authorities made not many changes in years since 2011 uprising to change the policies which has made major affect on their community.
There were several violence attacks to churches since . It was impossible even for the states man to make a visit to this buildings. During this incidents lots of people were killed.
Egyptian authorise controlled mosques and prevented people from causing more violence mob against Christians. Furthermore, unlike churches they could not take in control of decision making for mosques not even under the architectural elements. This failure made the churches to get permitted and legalise their status after submission of their documents to an administrative committee formed by the prime minister. This new permission included the new legislation in which renovation of churches were approved. However, the president Mubarak stated this permission can only be passed by the engineering authorities according to the EIPR.
Under both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, to which Egypt is a state party, all Egyptian citizens have the right to observe and practice their faith, in private and in public, freely and free from discrimination. Laws that discriminate between individuals, or their houses of worship, on the basis of religion violate both Egypt’s constitution and international law. Article 27 of the ICCPR requires a country to ensure that members of religious minorities can freely practice and profess their religion.
“Egyptian authorities need to hold accountable those who commit violence and reform the law to protect freedom of religion,” Stork said. “All Egyptians hold the right to live their lives in peace, regardless of their religious beliefs.”