A/HRC/14/17 10. In 2007, the Constitution was amended to further strengthen the notion of citizenship, as the only source for the enjoyment of citizens of their rights without discrimination. Egypt mentioned the numbers of torture cases brought to justice. Police staff received human rights training during initial trainings and periodically thereafter. 11. Freedom of opinion and expression was constitutionally guaranteed and has been widened over recent years. There was no censorship or liability, except as provided by law. Freedom of religion was guaranteed in the Constitution and was not limited by law. Personal status was ruled by provisions related to the religion of each individual. Freedom of worship was guaranteed as demonstrated by the construction/reconstruction, repair of many churches over recent years. 12. Economic, social and cultural rights enjoyed a high priority and Egypt developed plans and policies notably relating to the rights to food, to adequate housing, and to access to social services. Regarding the right to health, Egypt notably doubled public spending on health and a draft law for health insurance for all was under preparation. Access to drinking water is guaranteed to all Egyptian cities. Egypt is committed to provide free education at basic and higher education. 13. Women’s empowerment was enhanced through a law allocating 64 seats at least in the People’s Assembly. Egypt was also able to take significant steps towards eradicating female genital mutilation including by criminalizing it. Trials had already started for those involved in trafficking in persons and a draft law to combat this phenomenon was currently discussed. 14. Egypt responded to some advance questions. It recalled that the state of emergency was established in 1981 after President Sadat’s assassination, followed by further assassinations and, more recently, by terrorist operations against foreigners. The President pledged to lift it as soon as the new anti-terrorism law will be adopted. The new law will strike the balance between human rights and security imperatives. 15. Recently only very few civilians were referred to military or emergency courts and the normal criminal code was applied. These courts did not present substantive differences with civil courts. 16. In answering advance questions, the Egyptian delegation said that the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on Torture raises legal issues, as the legislation limits the right to visit detention centres to public prosecutors. Egypt was ready however to reconsider this issue in the future. 17. Human rights training was provided to 16000 administration of justice officials during the four past years within the framework of a capacity building programme. 18. Over decades, relations between Muslims and Copts have been healthy and positive. Recent tensions were mainly associated to radicalism and extremism and Egypt was looking at their reasons. Whenever violent incidents occur, the law is to implemented in full. 19. Egypt witnessed in the recent years an unprecedented increase in the freedom of expression. In 2006, penalty of imprisonment was repealed for a large number of publication offences and consideration was currently given to the remaining ones. 20. Monitoring of elections was performed by the judiciary and the civil society. The latter played an important role in the 2005 elections and will do so for the 2010 and 2011 elections. 21. Since the adoption of the Code of conduct for Special Procedures, Egypt demonstrated its willingness to cooperate more with them and did not exclude addressing a standing invitation to them in the future. 4