29 May 2017 :

A two-day seminar (15/16 May) was held in Cairo, Egypt, on the presentation of the project “Containing the death penalty in times of war on terrorism” by the association Hands Off Cain and financed by the EU Commission.
The meeting, co-sponsored by the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), was opened by Secretary Ala Sahalaby in a solemn session that saw the participation, among others, of the Chairman of the National Human Rights Council Mohamed Fayek, for whom security and human rights are complementary instances, and the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives, Alaa Abed, who talked about a country that needs reconciliation to be built having a confrontation.
The works were held in five sessions: Constitutional and criminal reform, obligations and directions; Guarantees and procedures; The death penalty in Egyptian legislation: analysis and orientation; The challenges related to terrorism at the legislative and judicial level and The socio-economic and psychological context of detainees.
The event took place at the Steigenberger Hotel at a crucial time for Egypt, which is reforming the Constitution, the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure.
Elisabetta Zamparutti, treasurer of Hands Off Cain said: "The goal is to support those who work in Egypt to accept the principles of the State of Law, starting from those principles that can lead to a containment of the death penalty."
The project will last for three years, and will cover, beyond Egypt, Somalia and Tunisia, with awareness-raising actions, training and legal defense pro bono of capital cases. "