SIS Launches 3-Language Portal for Human Rights Issues

The State Information Service (SIS) launched Tuesday an electronic portal in three languages; Arabic, English and French.

The SIS’s chairman Diaa Rashwan said that the portal will serve as a comprehensive local, regional and international database on all issues related to human rights.

“The portal aims to establish the foundations for correct concepts of human rights and their real content, including its economic, social, cultural and political dimensions and components,” Rashwan added.

He pointed out that the portal will also explain the legal, cultural and global bases for this concept and its applications in order to counter attempts of using human rights issues for malicious political purposes and suspicious agendas.

Rashwan confirmed that the new portal hrstudies.sis.gov.eg has been named "Studies in Human Rights", the same title of the academic journal issued by the SIS every three months.

He added that the portal comes within the framework of a wide media activity carried out by the SIS as an official Egyptian media body in order to achieve the objectives of state in spreading the culture human rights.

Rashwan added that the new e-portal is being updated around the clock in the three languages.

“The portal will also include the original texts of international, regional and local documents and their translations, including the basic international human rights conventions, to which Egypt has acceded,” he added.

The documents include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In addition to the Four Geneva Conventions and Protocols thereto, the Anti-Slavery Convention and other human rights conventions, most notably of which are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI).

Rashwan pointed out that a section has been devoted to Egyptian human rights legislation, foremost of which, the Egyptian Constitution adopted in 2014, as well as dozens of laws and regulations that guarantee full respect and protection for human rights in Egypt in a manner consistent with the highest international standards.

The portal includes another section for various institutions in Egypt. It includes the National Council for Human Rights NCHR, the National Council for Women NCW, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and the National Council for Disability Affairs.

A number of specialized regional and international councils such as the UN Human Rights Council will be included in the portal, in addition to other National Committees, like the National Coordinating Committee on Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration.

The portal also displays official and local data, national and international reports, as well as all official statements issued by the SIS on human rights in Egypt.

Another section on studies and reports on all human rights issues and related files will be presented in the portal.

In addition to another section dedicated to local, regional and global conferences, seminars and workshops on human rights issues.

While, the news section provides a daily flow of local, regional and international news related to all human rights issues.

Rashwan pointed out that the new portal is an objective source for researchers, interested readers in general in Egypt and abroad.

SIS Chairman said that the portal addresses the Egyptian people and all world peoples to be aware of the importance of human rights.

It will also provide news, reports and information to internet users around the world in the three languages of the portal.