“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.”

However, Bahgat hastened to qualify this statement with a reminder that a good text does not count for much in the absence of the state guaranteeing it to the letter, as well as in spirit, and a judiciary willing to defend the call for justice in the text.

“We still have to see the laws that would be inspired by this constitution — of course, when the constitution is finalised, offered for referendum and adopted,” Bahgat said.

“So yes, one could argue that we are about to have a good bill of rights, with some good new provisions, but this is not to say that we are going to see a better human rights context. We have not seen abuses of human rights to be on the decline,” Bahgat said.

“In other words, if not put in the right context in terms of the political commitment of the state, and implementation by the judiciary and other concerned bodies, this text would not be taking us so far,” he added.

Rights in practice, not theory

Bahgat has reasons to worry that go beyond the current scene where the right to protest is being curtailed by a new law issued by the interim authorities and where verdicts are issued in unmistakable political settings.

“The boundaries between the criminal courts and the Ministry of Interior have become blurry, and the public prosecution has devolved into a mere rubber-stamping body. It is very disturbing,” Bahgat lamented, citing a recent incident where a prosecutor left his office and went to prison to renew the custody order for 107 detainees.

According to Bahgat, it will take more than producing a decent bill of rights to end abusive practices and selective justice. “Reform of the police and the judiciary, and actually even reform of the media, is necessary in this respect. And this is no small job, and it would take a long time, especially in view of the damage — or one could say systematic destruction — that has been done on these fronts since the rule of Mubarak.”

As such, Bahgat, who is firmly opposed to some constitutional provisions, like the one that allows for the trial of civilians before military courts, is not willing to accept some satisfactory constitutional provisions as a substitute for accountability. Indeed, he insists that in the absence of accountability little would serve the cause of justice and rights.

Bahgat is not willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that for many of those who drafted the constitution the prime cause seemed to be the interests of particular groups, rather than the rights of citizens in society as such. “It is almost confessional, really,” he adds.

Where is police reform?

Bahgat is also not willing to turn a blind eye to the near immunity granted by the constitution to the police and military, despite their association with two “horrifying massacres” that took place in autumn against Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathisers, “at the Presidential Guard Club and Rabaa Al-Adawiya.” Society largely condoned this excessive use of force, as when the killing of 55 on 6 October went largely unremarked. For Bahgat, this is worrying.

“When you think about it, those who died 6 October this year are as many as those who died during the Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes [between demonstrators and the police and army] in November 2011,” Bahgat stated. He added: “And also, when you look around, you see girls who are being threatened with to jail because they walked around carrying a yellow balloon with a four-finger hand (the symbol of Rabaa) on it."

“We are faced with a crisis that I see very little chance of being rectified anytime soon, because our crisis is not just about the text of the constitution or that of the laws (and I am not all undermining the importance of these), but goes way beyond to the commitment of the state and society to justice,” Bahgat said.

Bahgat added: “I think that throughout the last three years (since the January 25 Revolution) we have been seeing in many ways a declining commitment to justice, and one way by which I could measure this decline is a simple comparison between the effort that the government of Ahmed Shafiq (right after the ouster of Mubarak in February 2011) made to serve the cause of truth and fact finding to that of the current [Hazem] El-Beblawi government, and I can tell you that the government of Ahmed Shafiq did more that that of El-Beblawi."

The next eruption

Along with justice and rights, Bahgat remains with “very deeply concerned” with socio-economic rights. He anticipates another eruption, "that would come sooner or later with what seems to be persistent denial of rights and obstinate coercion.”

“The fact that some seem to be missing is that when people went out against Mubarak and when they went out against Morsi they did so because they wanted a better life, and this is not happening. This is why they would go out again, especially when they are being denied democracy and are not being even offered the rule of a successful dictator able at least to make the economy improve.”

Bahgat concluded that the debate over the constitution is not as fundamental as the realities on the ground, and that debate over the fate of the roadmap that was designed after the ouster of Morsi 3 July is becoming less significant than ever, even amid leaks on its possible amendment.

“Yes, it seems to be all becoming irrelevant and even out of touch with reality — if not in denial. Things on the ground are taking their course and the next eruption seems to be inevitable,” he said.