400 Egyptian NGOs condemn the incident of the Patriarchal Church

The organizations are calling for the United Nations to enact a human rights convention that criminalizes all forms of support for terrorism

The 400 organizations signatories to this statement - which represent the various governorates of Egypt and its civil work sectors - express their strong condemnation of the despicable terrorist events that Egypt witnessed, the most recent of which was the incident witnessed by the Patriarchal Church in the Abbasid region, which killed 25 Christian citizens and wounded nearly 50, and before it. The accident that targeted a security force in front of Al-Salam Mosque in Giza Governorate and killed 6 soldiers and police officers.

The 400 organizations signatories to the statement have recently been brought together by their keenness to improve the laws governing civil work and their reservation on the proposed law that was submitted by Parliament, which was what the President of the Republic responded to with an open mind and sincere intention that civil society would be a real aid to the state in the face of the grave challenges that it faced. We all face it, on top of which is the challenge of terrorism, and then our firm conviction, we the signatories of this statement, is that the Egyptian state, with all its institutions and national forces, is fighting a fateful war in the face of ancient black terrorism, and civil society with all its interests stands at the heart of this battle to provide for the homeland that imminent danger. Along with the security, executive, legislative and party institutions.

In light of the events that Egypt witnessed after June 30, 2013 until now, and in light of the growing phenomenon of terrorism, violence and extremism in the region over the past years and what has become a fundamental threat to respect for human rights, opportunities for sustainable development and building democratic governance, and in view of what has become constant for all of the strong involvement Regional and external governance systems, media outlets and political currents in support of terrorism, its financing, justification of its crimes, providing a safe haven for the leaders of its organizations, and providing inexhaustible logistical supplies to these organizations. The organizations that signed the statement call for the following: -

1- We call on the Human Rights Council and the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a binding international convention to ensure the fight against terrorism, violence and extremism and condemn all its forms in the context of their direct undermining of human rights, provided that the convention ensures the criminalization of all practices committed by some countries and organizations within the framework of their support for terrorism and its organizations.

2- We call on all Egyptian civil organizations, partisan forces, trade unions and media institutions to adopt a political discourse and political practice that rejects and opposes terrorism without equivocation and without compromise with any organizations that support terrorism, advocate it, or justify its despicable crimes.

3- Religious, media, educational and civil society institutions should immediately enter into a comprehensive review process aimed at adopting a clear-cut strategy with specific procedures to correct the religious discourse and dismantle the ideological system of extremism.