In Maat Foundation Seminar
Postpone the execution of breastfeeding mother and the triumph of instinct for vengeance

12 \10 \2009 

What's the worst that society is in its institutions, bodies and individuals unable to apply the humanitarian principle! Which agreed by the tolerant teachings of the sky, and legislation of civilized nations, and international instruments that respects human rights and uphold his value and dignity is preserved, the more difficult to uphold the instinct of revenge on the human nature and the voice of doom is louder than mercy voice.

 

This is the question, which imposed itself on the words of speakers and participants in a seminar held by Maat on Saturday, October 10, 2009 to commemorate the World Day against the Death Penalty and was attended by some of the leaders, parliamentarians, civil society activists, legal experts, psychology, political parties, religious scholars and writers and journalists.

 

The seminar was held at the headquarters of Maat Foundation under the title "Towards a legislative amendment to postpone the execution of the breastfeeding mother," and the seminar comes at the opening of a campaign launched by Maat as the coordinator of the Egyptian Coalition against the Death Penalty to amend the Prisons Act to allow the postponement of the execution of pregnant mothers for two years after the birth and amend the current legislation, which will only postpone the implementation of the sentence after two months in contravention of international instruments, which obliges States which still apply the death penalty to comply with the minimum standards to do so.

 

The participants in the seminar revealed that not to delay the execution of pregnant women for two years after birth at least lead to bad results on the child and represent a physical and morale punishment on a fault he did not commit and an offense he was not a partner in, and the mother in the first and second years of the child's age is more importance and has pivotal role in the child's live in these years from the perspective of physical and psychological health.

 

Participants also revealed the apparent contradiction between Islamic Sharia and Egyptian law in this regard, because Islam support the idea of postponing the execution until the completion of breastfeeding, participants cited the evidence derived from more than one source of legislation, mainly through the Holy Quran, Sunnah and sayings of the noble companions. As participants revealed about the contradiction between the articles of the Egyptian Law of prisons and to each other regarding the rights of breastfeeding mothers in that it recognizes in article 20 of the survival of the child with his mother imprisoned for two years, while in article 68, it carried out the death penalty after two months.

 

Maat had been prepared a paper entitled " Postponing the breastfeeding mother's execution of a humanitarian imperative", which addressed the position of the international instruments , the Egyptian law and the legislation of some Islamic countries to postpone the execution of the breastfeeding mother, also addressed the position of Islamic law, psychology and education, then the paper dealt with the role of NGOs in the stopped of most countries in the death penalty in cases in front of  the courts and these organizations have established a number of coalitions in various countries around the world to abolish the death penalty.

The seminar recommended the need to communicate with members of parliament to revive the draft or the proposal of a law which was postponed the discussion about it in the previous parliamentary session which aiming to postpone the execution of pregnant mothers, and recommended that the Sheikhs and Jurists must play their role in the dissemination of awareness of the need for issuance a law in favor of the interests of society as a whole.

To read the paper, please visit the link

 http://maat-law.org/Reports/Report%20%2010102009.htm