The new constitution of Egypt

Essay:

Subject: The new constitution in Egypt

In recent years, Egypt, the largest country of the Arab world, underwent major changes especially with the outbreak of the Arab spring. As a matter of fact, in 2011, major protests forced the resignation of president Hosni Moubarak who was then in power for three decades. A year later, Mohamed Morsy, a member of the Muslim brotherhood, an Islamist organization was elected. He was the first democratically elected president and the first civil one since 1952. A new constitution was voted replacing the 1971 previous one. In June 2013, a year after his election, he was ousted after massive protests followed by a military intervention, and arrested by the Egyptian Army, led by General Abdel Fatah El Sissi who in May 2014 was elected. A new constitution came to replace the previous one

The purpose of this essay is first to examine the 2014 constitution, then to show how it evolved compared to the previous ones, and finally to give a critical assessment of the text.

The new Constitution was adopted on January 18th of 2014 and is based on the Constitution of 1971.  It defines the country, the “Arab Republic of Egypt” as a democratic republic based on citizenship and the rule of law (Article 1). It states that Egyptians have the right to elect the president for four years with a maximum of two terms. The legislative authority is held by the Chamber of Deputies, who are elected every five years by a universal suffrage and who can impeach the president. The unpopular Shoura council was abolished. The political system is a multi-party one. The main principles of the Sharia law (Islamic law) are considered the main sources of legislation (article 2). The constitution stipulates the equality between the two sexes, the respect of human rights and freedoms (article 5) and the guarantee for public liberties (article 51 to 93). This present constitution could be considered, in fact, a major change compared to the previous one.

The constitution was not entirely rewritten but some major points were changed to be more flexible and help the country becoming a civil government and reduce the religious influence. As a matter of fact, the 2012 constitution, adopted by the Islamists who were then in power was considered controversial as it gave religious clerics a bigger role and promoted a stricter interpretation of Islamic law. El Azhar, the main Muslim institution was to be consulted in all matters concerning Islamic law. All this was removed by the 2014 constitution. Instead the scope of the Sharia law is to be determined by the Supreme Constitutional Court, as it was the case with the 1971 constitution. The new text defines more precisely the role of the military. The new constitution, contrary to the previous ones includes major gains for women’s rights as equality between men and women is explicitly stated. There is a guarantee for women to assume high positions in the state including the judicial ones. Women are no longer marginalized as it was the case in the 2012 constitution. However, although the principle that civilians cannot be trialed by military courts is confirmed, it is stipulated that there are a number of exceptions like for instance treason. This is considered an authoritarian element of the constitution which illustrates one of the constitution flaws.

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