Article 12. Right to Work, Forced Labour
Work is a right, a duty, and an honor guaranteed by the state. There can be no forced labor except in accordance with the law and for the purpose of performing a public service for a defined period of time and in return for a fair wage, without prejudice to the basic rights of those assigned to the work
Article 13. Worker rights
The state commits to protecting worker rights, and works on building balanced work relationships between the two sides of the production process. It ensures means for collective negotiations and works on protecting workers against the risks of work, ensures that conditions for professional security, safety and health are met, and prohibits arbitrary dismissal. All the foregoing is as organized by law.
Article 27. Economic system
The economic system aims at achieving prosperity in the country through sustainable development and social justice to guarantee an increase in the real growth rate of the national economy, raising the standard of living, increasing job opportunities, reducing unemployment rates and eliminating poverty.
The economic system is committed to the criteria of transparency and governance, supporting competitiveness, encouraging investment, achieving balanced growth with regards to geography, sector and the environment; preventing monopolistic practices, taking into account the financial and commercial balance and a fair tax system; regulating market mechanisms; guaranteeing different types of ownership; and achieving balance between the interests of different parties to maintain the rights of workers and protect consumers.
The economic system is socially committed to ensuring equal opportunities and a fair distribution of development returns, to reducing the gaps between incomes by setting a minimum wage and pension to ensure a decent life, and setting a maximum wage in state agencies for whoever works for a wage as per the law.
Article 51. Human dignity
Dignity is a right for every person that may not be infringed upon. The state shall respect, guarantee and protect it.
Article 54. Personal freedom
Personal freedom is a natural right which is safeguarded and cannot be infringed upon. Except in cases of in flagrante delicto, citizens may only be apprehended, searched, arrested, or have their freedoms restricted by a causal judicial warrant necessitated by an investigation.
All those whose freedoms have been restricted shall be immediately informed of the causes therefor, notified of their rights in writing, be allowed to immediately contact their family and lawyer, and be brought before the investigating authority within twenty-four hours of their freedoms having been restricted.
Questioning of the person may only begin once his lawyer is present. If he has no lawyer, a lawyer will be appointed for him. Those with disabilities shall be provided all necessary aid, according to procedures stipulated in the law.
Those who have their freedom restricted and others possess the right of recourse before the judiciary. Judgment must be rendered within a week from such recourse, otherwise the petitioner shall be immediately released.
The law shall regulate preventive detention, its duration, causes, and which cases are eligible for compensation that the state shall discharge for preventative detention or for execution of a penalty that had been executed by virtue of a judgment that is overruled by a final judgment.
In all cases, the accused may be brought to criminal trial for crimes that he may be detained for only in the presence of an authorized or appointed lawyer.
Article 60
The human body is inviolable. Any assault, defilement or mutilation thereof is a crime punishable by law. Organ trafficking is forbidden, and no medical or scientific experiment may be performed thereon without the documented free consent of the subject, according to the established principles of the medical field as regulated by law.
Article 80. Rights of the child
A child is considered to be anyone who has not reached 18 years of age. Children have the right to be named and possess identification papers, have access to free compulsory vaccinations, health and family care or an alternative, basic nutrition, safe shelter, religious education, and emotional and cognitive development.
The state guarantees the rights of children who have disabilities, and ensures their rehabilitation and incorporation into society.
The state shall care for children and protect them from all forms of violence, abuse, mistreatment and commercial and sexual exploitation.
Every child is entitled to early education in a childhood center until the age of six. It is prohibited to employ children before they reach the age of having completed their primary education, and it is prohibited to employ them in jobs that expose them to risk.
The state shall establish a judicial system for child victims and witnesses. No child may be held criminally responsible or detained except in accordance with the law and the time frame specified therein. Legal aid shall be provided to children, and they shall be detained in appropriate locations separate from adult detention centers.
The state shall work to achieve children’s best interest in all measures taken with regards to them.
Article 89. Slavery, oppression, trafficking
Slavery and all forms of oppression and forced exploitation against humans are forbidden, as is sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking, all of which are punishable by law.
Article 99. Violation of personal freedom
Any assault on the personal freedoms or sanctity of the life of citizens, along with other general rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the law, is a crime with no statute of limitations for both civil and criminal proceedings. The injured party may file a criminal suit directly.
The state guarantees just compensation for those who have been assaulted. The National Council for Human Rights shall inform theprosecutor's office of any violation of these rights, and also possesses the right to enter into an ancillary civil lawsuit on the side of the injured party at its request. This is as specified within the law.
The Constitution of Egypt 2014 (PDF)
Article 117
Any public official/civil servant who uses unpaid workers in performing a work for any of the quarters prescribed in article 119, or withholds the whole or part of their wages unjustifiably shall be liable to the punishment of a temporary hard labor.
Detention shall be the penalty if the offender is not a public servant.
Article 280
Whoever arrests, confines, or detains a person without an order from one of the concerned judges/ruling governors, and in other than the cases wherein the laws and statutes authorize the arrest of suspects, shall be punished with detention or a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds.
Article 281
Any person who lends a place for impermissible confinement or detention while knowing about it, shall also be punished with detention for a period not exceeding two years.
Article 288
Whoever personally, or through others, kidnaps cunningly or coercively a male child that has not reached sixteen complete years of age, shall be punished with temporary hard labor.
Article 289
Whoever, personally or through others, kidnaps unforcibly and uncunningly a child that has not reached sixteen complete years of age, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period of three to ten years. If the kidnapped child is a female, the punishment shall be temporary hard labor.
Article 290
Whoever, personally or through others, kidnaps cunningly or forcibly, a female shall be punished with permanent hard labor. However, if the perpetration of this felony is accompanied with a felony of lying with the kidnapped female without her consent, the perpetrator shall be punished with a death sentence.
Penal Code 1937 (PDF)
Article 2
A person who commits the crime of human trafficking shall be considered one who deals in any manner in a natural person, including: the sale, offer for sale, purchase, or promise thereof; or the use, transport, delivery, harbouring, reception, or receipt, whether within the country or across its national borders; if this occurred through the use of force, violence, or threat thereof; or through abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power,or exploitation of a position of vulnerability or need; or through a promise to give or receive payments or benefits in exchange for obtaining the consent of a person to traffic another having control over him; or if the purpose of the transaction was exploitation in any of its forms, including: exploitation of acts of prostitution and all forms of sexual exploitation, exploitation of children in such acts and in pornography, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery or servitude, or begging or removal of human organs, tissues or a part thereof.
Article 3
The consent of the victim to exploitation in any of the forms of human trafficking shall be irrelevant as long as any of the means stipulated in Article (2) of this law have been used.
To establish trafficking in a child or in the incapacitated, use of any of the means referred to is not required, and in all cases his consent or the consent of the person responsible for him or his guardian shall be irrelevant.
Article 5
Aggravated imprisonment and a fine not less than 50,000 pounds and not to exceed 200,000 pounds or a fine equal to the value of the benefit gained, whichever is greater shall be imposed on anyone who committed the crime of human trafficking.
Article 6
Life imprisonment and a fine not less than 100,000 pounds and not to exceed 500,000 pounds shall be imposed on anyone who committed the crime of human trafficking in the following cases:
1) If the perpetrator established, organized, or managed an organized criminal group for the purposes of human trafficking, if he was a leader thereof, if he was one of its members or belonged thereto, or if the crime was of a transnational nature;
2) If the act was committed by way of threats of death, serious harm or physical or psychological torture; or if the act was committed by a person carrying a weapon;
3) If the perpetrator was the spouse, one of the ascendants or descendants, or custodian or guardian of the victim, or was responsible for the supervision or care or had authority over the victim;
4) If the perpetrator was a public official or was assigned to carry out a public service and committed the crime by exploiting the office or public service;
5) If the crime resulted in the death of the victim or caused him to suffer a permanent disability or an incurable disease;
6) If the victim was a child, was incapacitated or was a person with disabilities;
7) If the crime was committed by an organized criminal group.
Article 10
Imprisonment shall be imposed on anyone who induces another by any means to commit a crime referenced to in the aforementioned articles, irrespective of whether the inducement had an effect
Law No 64 of 2010 regarding Combatting Human Trafficking (PDF)
