The Maat Center for Legal and Constitutional Studies completed the second and last training for lawyers on providing advice and legal support to the families of prisoners and detainees at the Aton Hotel in Minya Governorate from May 24 to 26, 2008.
Thirty lawyers attended the training, and thus the center would have trained sixty lawyers from six governorates, namely “Cairo, Giza, Minya, Assiut, Dakahlia and Alexandria.” This training comes within the activities of the community peace project that is implemented by the Maat Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Studies in cooperation with the United States Agency for Development (USAID), which aims mainly to reintegrate and rehabilitate the families of prisoners and detainees into society and to emphasize the culture of religious tolerance, dialogue, respect for the law and the rejection of violence. The training included preparing lawyers to deal with the legal problems faced by prisoners and detainees and their families, such as the detainee’s right to keep work and the right to education, as well as how to obtain social security, as well as personal status issues such as marriage, divorce, and others.
The scholars praised the scientific material and the manner of its approach and emphasized the importance of caring for the families of prisoners and detainees, integrating them into society and helping to solve their problems, especially legal, material and psychological issues, because this is a safety valve that protects society from exposure to more violence or crimes resulting from marginalization and a sense of injustice.
On the sidelines of the training course, the discussion took place between the trainees and the lecturers about extending the state of emergency, and everyone expressed their dissatisfaction with the continuation of work under the emergency law, according to which broad powers are given to the executive authority in arrest, search and arrest. The attendees unanimously agreed that we do not want emergencies and we do not want terrorism.