Twenty Egyptian and international rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, praised President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s move to return the controversial criminal procedures bill to parliament, calling it a rare concession to mounting public pressure.
In a joint statement, the organizations called the move “a critical opportunity” to overhaul a bill they say endangers core rights and constitutional safeguards.
El-Sisi’s referral, issued Sunday, flagged serious issues with governance, clarity, and feasibility.
The statement also urged parliament to strengthen protections around home privacy, defendants’ rights, and to expand noncustodial alternatives to pretrial detention.
The groups noted that the president’s concerns mirrored those raised earlier by civil society and UN experts, particularly on warrantless searches, shrinking defense rights, and the lack of real alternatives to jail.
Further, the signatories called on lawmakers to “correct course” by scrapping the current draft and starting over. They urged a nationwide consultation with legal experts, rights defenders, and professional associations to ensure the rewrite goes beyond the president’s edits and addresses all critical flaws.
The bill had already drawn fierce backlash in parliament. Critics warned it would drag Egypt’s justice system decades into the past, granting police and prosecutors sweeping powers to monitor communications, seize assets, restrict defense rights, and run remote trials with limited oversight. It also failed to stop the abusive practice of “rotation” detention cases to keep people jailed.
Separately, the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession welcomed the bill’s return but said it doesn’t go far enough. In its own statement, it pushed for inclusive public dialogue involving independent scholars, civil society, and legal professionals.
It also called for a neutral drafting committee to write a new version that balances public safety with due process and aligns with international human rights standards.
Groups signing the joint statement included the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the Freedom of Thought and Expression Foundation, the Committee for Justice, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and the International Commission of Jurists, among others.
