
Egypt's Senate (Photo: Khaled Mashaal)
The Senate – Egypt's consultative upper house – will reconvene on Sunday to discuss three new legislative amendments, the most important of which is a one aimed at fighting bullying crimes against physically-challenged individuals.
A report prepared by the Senate's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee along with the Human Rights and Social Solidarity Committee indicated that a legislative amendment drafted by MP Mostafa El-Sallab seeks to stem the tide of bullying practices against physically-challenged individuals in Egypt.
"The bill will toughen penalties to protect physically-challenged individuals from bullying crimes which have increased in Egypt in the recent period," said the report.
The bill, an amendment to the law regulating the rights of the physically-challenged individuals (law 10/2018), states that a person convicted of bullying a physically-challenged individual would face a minimum penalty of one year in prison and a fine ranging from EGP 50,000 to EGP 100,000.
"And if two people or more were found guilty of bullying a physically-challenged individual, each would face two years in prison and a fine ranging from EGP 100,000 to EGP 200,000," said the report.
Meanwhile, the Senate will discuss another legislative amendment aimed at setting up a charitable Wakf fund with the objective of implementing development projects, improving the lives of citizens in slum areas and fighting the phenomenon of street children.
A report prepared by the Wakf's (Religious Endowments) Committee along with the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee said that the charitable Wakf Fund will be affiliated with the prime minister's office that is located in Cairo and regulated to have branches in all of Egypt's governorates.
"The Fund will be primarily devoted to disseminating the moderate message of Islam, helping the state set up service and development projects, contributing to establishing infrastructure projects, improving slum areas and abolishing the phenomenon of street children," said the report.
Also according to the report, the proposed fund's money will come from donations, investments and the returns on Wakf projects at the end of every fiscal year.
The fund's money, supervised by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), will be exempt from all kinds of taxes and fees.
The senate is also scheduled to discuss a third legislative amendment aimed at regulating the performance of the Syndicate of Engineers.
The amendment seeks to change the syndicate's internal bylaws and the measures currently followed in collecting its financial resources.
Short link: