By: Alia
Mossallam
The National
Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) and other government institutions
preferred ‘atfal bela ma’wa’ :
children without a shelter. But the truth is most of Egypt’s street children do
indeed have homes and families, but they are either families who encourage them
to spend more time on the street for income, or drive them to it through
physical and often sexual abuse.
The
widest definition in Egypt, is that they are children under the age of 18 who
spend all or most of the time on the streets. According to a study by the
population council in 2008, 65% of children are driven to the street by the
situation at home, whilst 23% are forced to leave the house by their parents.[3]
Street children in Egypt are mainly offered protection services by street-children NGOs (mainly in Cairo and Alexandria), as well as the Ministry of Social Solidarity under the shelters of the institutions of defense. The highest government body concerned with children’s issues has been the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.
A long battle was waged by civil society organizations, supported by UNICEF and eventually sponsored by NCCM to amend the child law to protect children of the streets rather than incriminate them.
- That street children can be criminalized (as juveniles) from the age of 12, rather than seven
- That children born to a single mother, can be issued a birth certificate in her name alone
- That minors are to be segregated from adults in detention centers[5] (criminal penalties are to be imposed for officials who jail children with adults)
- That child protection committees be established in governorates to monitor and support children at risk
Although
the law was passed, legislations were not developed to ensure it was
implemented. As a result children still faced the highest level of abuses
inside police stations[6]
and children are still detained with criminals of the highest offenses. Most of
all however, was not that children were not protected by apparatus of the
Ministry of interior, rather that they are constantly threatened and abused by
them. Children are constantly subject to arrest campaigns, used for entrapments,
and threatened with imprisonment if they did not do favors for corrupt
police-men[7]. Furthermore the law entitling women to record
children’s birth certificates in their own name was never enforced, thus
incriminating both the women who have the children out of wedlock, and having
the children born without formal identification. Causing further problems in
their entitlements to health services and complicating the possibilities of
their re-integration into society.
- That the streets would become a less dangerous place with less abuse by police and investigative police (civilian dressed)
- That they would ‘finally’ be put in friendly shelters and sent to school
- And that they would readily receive services in public hospitals
- But mostly, that the stigma towards them may lessen.
This however, was barely the case.
III.
Since the
revolution
Arrests
of children, started with that of civilians, starting with the rolling in of
the military tanks by the end of January. What was unfamiliar about the process
was the fact that children were transferred to military prisons and thus more
difficult to find. Many children under 16 were arrested for not carrying a
national ID (issued at 16 years of age), or for breaking curfew, and few were
transferred to military courts.
- Inciting Violence
- Burning of public property
Three sisters, Zainab, Sanaa and
Amira, on the other hand escaped their home in Aswan, Sanaa (17) suffered a
nervous break down from the extent of her father and brothers’ beating, and
came to Cairo on the 28th of January. They were arrested by the
military police in the station, and detained for a few days, before being let
go. They were arrested again a few days later, and after two weeks of arrests
and release, the girls were finally transferred to a street children NGO.
On
the 9th of March, and
during the first military crackdwn on Tahrir, 13 year old Mostafa Gamal El Din[12],
was arrested and received a military trial, for which he was sentenced to one
year. He was released three weeks later. Mohammed Abdelhady, 16 yars old, was
sentenced to three years in Tora prison, and after much pressure and
campaigning, his sentence was reduced and suspended, and he was released on the
21st of May, two months later.
In the events during the period
of 16th – 20th of December
known as the ‘Ministerial cabinet’ events, 76 children[17]
were arrested and detained. Two of these were children under 12 years of age.
Besides
the 76 children arrested and detained and documented by lawyers, many children
were kidnapped and let go eventually, which makes them invisible to all records
of violations. These are a few examples;
16 year old Yousri Salem,
enrolled in an NGO shelter, and not one interested in protests, was walking to
Saad Zaghloul metro station when he was kidnapped by civilian-clothed police in
a microbus. He was taken to a building near parliament, and beaten and whipped
for hours, breaking one of his ribs[18]. He was eventually released unto the streets.
Aly
Abdelmaguid, 15[19], was standing with an old
man, near the events, when they were both attacked by military police. The old
man was let go, but even when he claimed Aly was with him, the police shouted
back “Let this be a lesson, not to bring your children to the square”, Aly was
taken to the parliament building where several others were detained, made to
stand in a long row and beaten extensively. “Every now and then they would
bring us water…I would take my time drinking hoping to keep them off me for the
longest time possible. I was always terribly afraid of falling. We all saw what
happened when someone fell whilst being beaten – they would almost be whipped
to death!”
In February of 2012, and a year after the start of the
revolution, the violations against the children achieved new records. 63
children were arrested during these events, approximately 60% of which were
street children. Children arrested in this case were detained in state security
camps (mu’askar amn markazy) in Tora, making it difficult for lawyers and human
rights practitioners to find them. Children were beaten excessively upon
capture (one child complained of four hours of beating whilst another was
beaten naked on the bathroom floor), and one was arrested with rubber bullet
wounds. However they were denied medical attention for up to four days of their
arrest. Lawyers suspect they were kept in state security camps until their
wounds healed so a case could not filed against their captors.
Finally,
during the events in Portsaid on the 2nd
of February, 25 children were arrested. Eight have been released, but 17
are still detained. These children are once again detained in state security
camps , making it difficult to find them or assess their health. They are also
presented before the prosecutors’ offices in Ismaeleyya, Suez and Mansoura.
The work
of NGOs, now the only active and effective institutions working with children
has become difficult as of late, because of the security situation. This has
meant :
- An issue which has become exacerbated as of late is the influence of older youth over younger ones. These young ‘leaders’ seem to be manipulated by the ministry of interior as of late, which makes them comfortable in their abuse of the children, knowing they will be protected.
- One of the revolution’s many demands, the restructuring of the Ministry of Interior, provides an opportunity for drastically affecting the situation with the children. For years, they have been the children’s biggest source of danger, and most NGOs time is spent intercepting, negotiating and finding ways to work with children, around the police. The possibility that children may not be placed in cells with criminals, and that they may not be abused or manipulated by police, will change the experiences of the children, and the work of NGOs forever.
Unless the police-state ends, the revolution will never be complete, and the possibility of the restructuring of the ministry of interior, must taken into account a section in every police station with social workers to deal with children and women.
But most
of all, the situation with street-children, like many of our other problems
requires a breach in imagination. The children know what they want. They have
lived for years off the cruelest streets, but they have had the benefits of
learning from the world, rather than an education system that paralyzes the
mind rather than liberating it. They understand politics; they understand the
dark underworld of power struggles run by the police, state security and a
system of oppression and paranoia. But most of all, they understand and know
clearly what they want.
Summary:
Although
the burning of the police stations offered a certain kind of closure to the
children of Cairo’s streets, and the possibility of a safer life with less
abuse and violence, the military’s struggle for power, has brought
indiscriminate injustice to children and civilians alike. This report
highlights the abuse and violations faced by children since the start of the
revolution, and the hope that still remains in the possibility of dismantling a
police-state. Cairo’s children are creative, highly intelligent and politically
conscious; the revolution has provided an opportunity for us to better
understand children of our streets. Thus their participation in a collective
and popular, youth-inspired revolution, holds hope not only for them, but a
society that can finally learn from its youth.
I.
Children of the
streets…
“Huwwa
el share’ beygeeb welaad?” Nora, 16 years old[1]
“Tell me, do streets bear children? Do they?”
In an
interview with a girl who lived on the street in 2008, she asked that she not
be referred to as a street child. “Afterall…” she asked with scorn “do streets
bear children? Where did you get this term from then?”[2].
Hers was
a significant questioning of the name given to street children, and whereas the
English term, ‘children on/of the streets’ may work better, a term that
appeased all stakeholders involved with the issue was less easy to coin. As was
a commonly agreed upon definition.Street children in Egypt are mainly offered protection services by street-children NGOs (mainly in Cairo and Alexandria), as well as the Ministry of Social Solidarity under the shelters of the institutions of defense. The highest government body concerned with children’s issues has been the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.
A long battle was waged by civil society organizations, supported by UNICEF and eventually sponsored by NCCM to amend the child law to protect children of the streets rather than incriminate them.
The
child law of 1996 was amended in 2008 to reflect that street children were;
-
Children at risk, rather than “children vulnerable
to delinquency”[4]- That street children can be criminalized (as juveniles) from the age of 12, rather than seven
- That children born to a single mother, can be issued a birth certificate in her name alone
- That minors are to be segregated from adults in detention centers[5] (criminal penalties are to be imposed for officials who jail children with adults)
- That child protection committees be established in governorates to monitor and support children at risk
Aside
from the abuse and maltreatment by the ministry or interior however, the
children’s main concern and complaint, was not being heard. In a world of NGOs,
National councils, state and corrective institutions, and a battle over laws
and legislations; the children lived in a world of people who knew what was
best for them, and little time to respond to what they saw best for themselves.
Although
various service are offered by NGOs through street work, reception centers and
shelters, the NGO’s main battle is to constantly protect the children form
state apparatus, and protect themselves from the risk of closure. Even NCCM’s
support has tended to be politically conditional. Whereas studies indicate that
the number of children vary from hundreds of thousands to millions, NCCM
insists on keeping it at a conservative ‘thousands’. This is metaphoric, both
for the lack of accurate data on sensitive issues in Egypt, as well as NCCM’s
conditional commitment to the children’s issues.
The
research in this report is based on interviews with officials and children in 7
NGOs in Cairo; Banaty for girls, Egyptian Association for societal
consolidation, Al Ma’wa, Hope Village Society, CARITAS, Bustan El Tefl and
FACE. As well as lawyers from the EAFCC (Al
mu’assasa al masreyya lel nohud be’awda’ al tofula), and various other
human rights organizations part of the front for the protection of Egyptian
protestors. It also draws upon interviews performed with 90 children in March
of 2011 in an attempt to assess their experience throughout the revolution in a
report for Human Rights watch.
II.
The revolution for
the children
“Henna
kannu bey3ala2una men regleyna…”Selim, 13
years old
“This is where they used to hang us from
our feet…”
1.
Taking part in the revolution
Children
were quite consciously active during the revolution and to be found in most
places where the action took place. Though many accusations were raised against
the children for participating in the ‘burning of the police stations’, most of
them only participated after the stations were already burning. Sayed, a 15
year old explained that “People watch movies and imagine that street children
are thugs with little to fear. But let me tell you this, for every one of us
whose heart is made of stone, there are 100s who do nothing better than hide.”
Sayed participated in burning of a police station in Haram, but he believes the
burning started from the inside.[8]
A group
of boys in Monib on the other hand, entered the police station in Boulaq after
it was burnt down. They worked on bringing the fragile ceiling, the very one
they were hung with ropes from, to the ground. Selim, 13 years old remembered;
“You looked up at the ceiling and the ropes and remember everything that
happened to you there; and then BOOM you see the ceilings with the ropes fall
to the ground… it’s the most beautiful thing about this revolution…that we may
never hang by these ropes again”[9]
Many
accusations were also leveled against the children for joining thugs and
attacking protestors during the revolution. But although children were injured
by clashes, they were wise in the sides they chose. “You see…” 13 year old
Ahmed Abdallah, explained to me, “there are two kinds of shaa’b.
There is the shaa’b that push the
carts of foul, and sell corn, that you see around you everyday, and there is
the shaa’b who work very closely with
the government and the president and his people. But the first kind of shaa’b, that’s the real shaa’b that
we’re part of. And that’s the shaa’b
that will protect us”[10]
2.
Expectations – ‘Teslam
edeyn el thawra’ – God bless the revolution! Salem, 14
The
children had many expectations of the revolution, based on my interviews with
them in March of 2011. These included;
-
That the police treatment would differ – and this
was the case for the first few months- That the streets would become a less dangerous place with less abuse by police and investigative police (civilian dressed)
- That they would ‘finally’ be put in friendly shelters and sent to school
- And that they would readily receive services in public hospitals
- But mostly, that the stigma towards them may lessen.
This however, was barely the case.
3.
Dangers
The
dangers the children were exposed to during the first few weeks of the
revolution were mainly on account of the lack of operating protecting
mechanisms and institutions. Few children were injured during the clashes, but
more were injured upon arrests by the army. On account of the lack of operating
NGOs, the fact that the help-line (16000) was not operating, and state
institutions closed down, few institutions watched out for the children and the
levels of risk were higher.
“El
share’ ba’a gashe’…tamma’…mesh zay el awel..” Dunya,
16 years old
“The
streets have become creul…greedy…worse than before”
1.
Arrests and
detentions
The
court proceedings are swift, often take place without the presence of a lawyer,
and are difficult to appeal. At times, making it even difficult to trace the
children’s whereabouts.
With
time however the situation worsened as more and more serious accusations were
leveled against children arrested during political clashes, whether they were
in the events or in the surrounding areas, these started with breaking the
curfew and petty theft and developed into;
-
Congregating (an offence under the emergency law)
-
Carrying Molotov cocktails or ‘white’ weapons- Inciting Violence
- Burning of public property
In most
of these cases the children were framed. The events started with the army’s indiscriminate
heavy handedness violating the rights of children and adults alike, and
developed further as the ministry of interior returned to its barracks in the
summer. Systematic arrests and abuse by the ministry of interior are now
procedural, along with the military. Furthermore, since November onwards, a
campaign to defame the children has started, using them as scapegoats for
political clashes. In December, for instance, children were made to appear on
TV and confess that they had been paid by activists to raise havoc in Tahrir. This
in itself is an offence and violation of the child law. Both in using the
children for political purposes and defaming them.
Below
are the highlights, of arrests month by month, since the start of the
revolution. These numbers were difficult to ascertain, especially during the
first few months, where lawyers, were at best reacting to arrests, with little
time to document. More so however I focus on the stories of children who were
kidnapped by military police, state security soldiers or police; beaten, abused
and returned to the streets. These cases are rarely documented except when the
children go to the NGOs for help or support. Thus even when estimates for
arrests and kidnapping exist, they are highly conservative. And every child
that is released of jail, tells the tale of at least a handful others
imprisoned with him or her.
In February, 2011 , a number of children
were arrested for breaking the curfew, or not carrying a national ID (even
though they were under 16 years – the age upon which one is issued).
Of these
was 15 year old Mohammed Gaber, a well built, mentally challenged young man, on
his way home to Alexandria on the 30th of January. Mohammed was
blind-folded and hand-cuffed, his phone taken away from him and placed under
disciplinary detention for a week in the 6th of October military
prison. There he was beaten and electrocuted for a week on end. “They hit me
everywhere” he described “I still have marks where they whipped and kicked me
hard on my sides”[11].
Mohammed was then moved to the Borg el Arab prison in Alexandria, and due to
the fact that Mohammed is mentally challenged, he was not able to explain his
situation, nor offered the possibility to make any phone-calls. Finally
Mohammed managed to give his father’s number to family visiting a fellow
inmate, and after spending a month in prison was set free.
|
Mostafa: Youngest detainee is innocent From www.nomiltrials.com
|
On the 15th of May, during protests
in front of the Israeli Embassy events in memory of Nakba; 150 protestors
arrested, 17 of whom were under 18 years of age. They children were let out three
days later, with suspended one-year sentences.[13]
On the 9th of September, during
protests in front of the Isreali Embassy, demanding justice for the three
Egyptian soldiers shot by Israeli soldiers,
38 protestors were arrested, including 5 children under 18 years or age,
and on the 10th, 87 were arrested, 8 of them under age. All were
released on the first of November, with one year suspended sentences.[14]
On the 30th of September in
protests before the ministry of defense, 12 protestors were arrested,
includeing one 15 year old. He was tried, pronounced innocent and released on
the 13th of November.[15]
On the 9th of October, during the
events known as the Maspiro Massacre; 28 peaceful protestors were arrested, three
of which were under 18. All were released on the 23rd of November,
but their cases continue in court.[16]
|
11 and 12 year-old handcuffed. Picture by lawyer, Malek
Adly.
|
It is
during these events that the violations against the children were noted to be
highest. Arrested girls (around 15 years of age) were threatened with virginity
tests, and children were beaten, tortured and threatened by police. Many of the
children arrested were not even within the realms of the ministerial cabinet,
sit-in.
|
Yousri Salem, 16.
Broken rib, and injured due to whips, beating and electrocution
|
Dunya El
Sayed, 15 years old[20]
was also arrested during these events, whilst selling tea in Tahrir. She was
taken with the two girls she was with, detained in a building near the cabinet,
and beaten extensively for hours, before they were taken to Abdin station.
There she was detained for 12 days, before she could call her lawyers. “It’s
not that they didn’t give me a chance to make the phone calls, but all the
beating and electrifying tasers, made me forget mama Hind (social worker)’s
number…mama hind whose number I’ve known for four years…imagine?”
The
children were also presented before three general prosecutors including Abdin,
El Wayly, and El Sayeda Zainab, making it difficult for lawyers to be present.
Lawyer Ahmed Meselhy[21]
quotes a child who said he was threatened with detention should he not go out
and return by the end of the day with a package of cigarettes and 100 pounds.
To date,
52 of the children were released, but nine children remain detained. All nine
are school-children. The arrests as of late have been indiscriminate to street
children and school children and adults and minors alike. The arrests of the
street children however are being blown up to use them for the wide-spread
arrests of children, as ‘thugs’ were used to justify the arrests and violations
of the rights of protestors.
In cases
as of November onwards, the children are being used as scape-goats, to turn
public opinion against the revolution – making it seem like ‘violence’ is
incited by children, as it was made to look incited by thugs, and drain the
situation of political purpose. The percentage of children arrested grows in
each incident.
2.
Military trials
The exact
number of children exposed to military trials is yet to be identified, due to
the swift nature of the trials in the absence of a lawyer, as well as the
difficulty in documentation in the beginning of the revolution. Since the
beginning of the revolution, and until the events of December however, children
were systematically transferred to military courts and military prosecutors.
At the
moment, the pending case known to the ‘No to military trials campaign’ is that
of Islam Hassan, 17 years old, arrested in March of 2011 and sentenced to seven
years in prison for theft.
3.
Lack of security
and NGO work
-
A heightened level of suspicion of street children
in the streets, makes the streets even more hostile to children (they are
sometimes arrested by shop-keepers and handed over to the military) as well as
to street (social) workers who visit the children at night
-
Mobile units which make rounds during the night have
also been met with hostility and one group was arrested in November[22],
and warned against operating on the streets with kids without clearing from the
ministry of interior (which is difficult to obtain).- An issue which has become exacerbated as of late is the influence of older youth over younger ones. These young ‘leaders’ seem to be manipulated by the ministry of interior as of late, which makes them comfortable in their abuse of the children, knowing they will be protected.
-
Consequentially, NGOs who strive to protect the
children, feel threatened by the older youth, especially NGOs who work with
girls, and protect them from abuse.
IV.
Revolutionary hopes
Although
the level of abuse, arrest, incarceration and torture has increased since the
revolution for the children, the revolution has very much, been a revolution for the children as well.
During
the first months of the revolution, the children could be found in Tahrir, in
tents with protestors, in schools set up by activists in the sit-ins and in the
midst of the battles. Some children are there consciously because the battle
against oppression is one they know far more than others. But for most children
the street has become home, not only for them, but an entire population.
The
revolution provides us with vast opportunities for working with the children,
and of them, these are few;
-
Protestors and civilians who ‘pass through’ have
interacted with the children and in many ways ‘seen’ them for the first time. Their plight has not only been
acknowledged by people, but understood, and for the first time, openly shared.
Many children are more comfortable talking about their experiences with the
police, seeing that there is an opportunity and possibility for change. In many
ways, the children feel heard. NGOs suffer this competition, as Tahrir has far
stronger a lure over the children during sit-ins than the NGOs have. There they
find the affection, and non-judgmental attention that they miss most
- One of the revolution’s many demands, the restructuring of the Ministry of Interior, provides an opportunity for drastically affecting the situation with the children. For years, they have been the children’s biggest source of danger, and most NGOs time is spent intercepting, negotiating and finding ways to work with children, around the police. The possibility that children may not be placed in cells with criminals, and that they may not be abused or manipulated by police, will change the experiences of the children, and the work of NGOs forever.
-
For decades, NGOs
have strived to do the work of the government, particularly in the realms of social development,
welfare and social and financial support. The revolution offers an opportunity
for the possibility of a different contract. If the ‘protection mechanism’ in
the amended child law is activated, and the Ministry of defence’s shelters are
reformed so that they are more child friendly, there is a possibility that NGOs
may finally focus on providing services to the children, and spend less time
trying to help them escape from abusive shelters, searching for children in
police stations and prosecutors’ offices and trying to broker temporary
marriages between pregnant girls and their boy-friends/rapists, in hope for a
birth certificate for the unborn child. The revolution offers an opportunity
where broken families can be intercepted and supported by the government and
NGOs can be supported – rather than constantly being at war with the both the
streets, and the government.
Mostly,
at the moment the body of a 16 year old boy lies in Zeinhum morgue, since
November events, waiting to be claimed. The revolution offers an opportunity where
someone may be held accountable for the death of this little boy, and where a
family may be wondering about his whereabouts. It offers an unmatched
opportunity where no one is forgotten, where no one falls through the cracks.
V.
Recommendations and
ways forward
For
years, the slogan of a ‘working group’ of 20 civil society NGOs working to
raise awareness about street children, was “A society’s responsibility”. The
children are the responsibility of a society, but the symptom of a failed
state. The result of poverty and oppression and injustice that lead to their
ending up on the street, and an abusive police state that maintains their
status quo and lives off their abuse.
The
solution to the ‘problem’ is tightly interlinked with all our other problems. In
the shadow of an unjust military council, the children suffer as the entire
society does, injustice is as blind as we hoped justice would be.
The
child-law exists, and human rights activists and lawyers, are working very hard
to ensure it is not changed, but simply, activated.
Unless the police-state ends, the revolution will never be complete, and the possibility of the restructuring of the ministry of interior, must taken into account a section in every police station with social workers to deal with children and women.
Seeing
children less as ‘street-children’, less as violent and dangerous, and more as
children, will perhaps be the strongest way forward. Listening to them more,
understanding all they have gained from street life, and their aspirations and
dreams for the limited ‘mainstream culture’ that we live, may mean not only
saving their souls, but possibly also, saving ours.
[2]
Personal interview, 2008
[3]
Behavrioral Survey amongst street children in greater Cairo and Alexandria.
Population council regional office for middle east and North Africa, 2008
[4]
Hosam el din, Taiseer. Street Children in Egypt, Research Gaps and Key
Policies. UNICEF; Cairo. October, 2011.
[5]
For the full amended law see: Egypt’s Child law 126 for the year 2008. Childs
Rights International Network.
http://www.crin.org/Law/instrument.asp?InstID=1373
[6] A study by
NCCM and UNODC in 2007 indicate that over 55% of children on the streets have
been abused by the police, however I believe this to be very conservative. A
study by Hanna Abolghar, pediatrician and founder of the first reception
centres and shelters for girls, indicate that most girls have been abused by
police. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), NCCM. Guidance Manual
for Protecting Street Children from Drugs, 2007.
[7]
Based on interviews with 90 children in March, 2011. Also see: Charged with being children. Human Rights
Watch, 2003. www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/egypt0203.pdf
[8]
Personal interview, March 2011 (Caritas, NGO, Haram)
[9]
Personal interview, March 2011 (Mawa NGO, Monib)
[10]
Personal Interview, March 2011 (Sayeda Zainab - street)
[11]
Personal Interview, March 2011. Al Ma’wa NGO
[12]
From : “Atfal da7aya el 3askar”
“Children: victims of the military”
No Military trials Campaign:
[13]
Ibid
[14]
Ibid
[15]
Ibid
[16]
Ibid
[17]
Figures and details of detention and release provided by the EFACC group of
children’s lawyers (El mu’assassa al masreyya lel nuhud be ‘awda’ al tofulah)
65% of this figure were street-children.
[18]
Testimony documented by The Egyptian association for societal consolidation –
NGO for street Children in Masr el Qadima
[19]
Testimony documented by the Egyptian association for societal consolidation
[20]
Personal interview in Banati NGO, Masr el Qadima, March, 2012
[21]
Personal Interview in EFACC, March 2012
[22]
Personal Interview with social workers of Caritas NGO, March, 2012
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