Artwork: Gianluca Costantini https://channeldraw.blogspot.ie/2016/10/aya-hijazi-freeaya.html

Free Child Rights Defender Aya Hijazi

On Universal Children’s Day, their protectors shouldn’t be in prison.

5 min readNov 4, 2016

“There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they can grow up in peace.” — Kofi Annan

After a lifetime split between suburban Virginia and urban Cairo, human rights defender Aya Hijazi has spent the past two years in an Egyptian jail cell.

In 2009, after graduating from George Mason University with a degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, she returned to Cairo to live with her mother.

Four years later, in response to the massive numbers of children she saw living, working, and sleeping on Cairo’s streets, Aya founded the Belady Foundation for Street Children.

Photo Credit: Belady Foundation for Street Children

Belady campaigned for sanitary living conditions for the city’s orphaned and poor children, and provided a safe learning environment for reading, writing and art classes, recycling workshops, and sports. In the middle of a city grappling with revolution, re-revolution, and one authoritarian regime after another, Aya provided a small but powerful pocket of calm that 20 Egyptian kids called home.

Less than a year after founding Belady, Egyptian security forces arrested Aya, her husband and four other Belady volunteers.

The group has now been imprisoned without trial for more than two years.

Aya and her husband have been charged with sexually abusing the children and paying them to participate in anti-government demonstrations — allegations that human rights organisations have proved false.

Aya’s next hearing is scheduled for 19 November.
One day before Universal Children’s Day on 20 November.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Adopted on 20 November 1989, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most rapidly and widely ratified treaty in history, and has led to tangible improvements in children’s rights across the world.

But despite unprecedented ratification rates and some meaningful commitments to protect the youngest among us, violations against children continue in every country in the world.

Street Children in Egypt

Local NGOs estimate that approximately 50,000 children live on the streets of Cairo with little to no family contact, while another 1 million “street working children” work on Cairo’s busy streets every day and return to their families at night.

Article 80 of Egyptian Constitution states:

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 reality, however, is completely opposite. In 2005, the ESCWA estimated that there were anywhere between 200,000 to 2 million children on the streets. The International Organisation for Migration puts the number of street children in Egypt as high as 2 million, estimating that 70% of these have been subjected to trafficking. Many suffer from chronic illnesses and respiratory diseases following years of living and working on crowded, polluted streets, and few have access to health care. Many lack birth certificates and cannot enrol in school or claim Egyptian citizenship.

The Egyptian government remains in violation of its law and its commitment to international child protection standards — and has imprisoned one of the leading humanitarians trying to fill in the gaps. Children’s rights defenders are critical actors in the struggle to realize full rights and development opportunities for all children, and criminalizing them is a clear signal that al-Sisi’s government’s fear of civil society trumps any latent desire it might have to protect Egyptian children.

The Campaign for Aya

On July 10, Washington Post editor Jackson Diehl called on the Obama administration to defend Hijazi from unlawful prosecution at the hands of Abdel Fatah al-Sissi government.

“That the Obama administration is prepared to tolerate her unjust imprisonment so meekly is not only shameful; it’s an invitation to more attacks on innocent Americans.” — Jackson Diehl, Washington Post

On 15 September, U.S. Representative Don Beyer called for immediate release of Aya Hijazi:

“Aya’s continued detention violates legal standards set by the United Nations, the African Union, and Egypt’s own laws. Despite the extraordinary length of this pre-trial detention, the Egyptian government still cannot present any evidence against her. Aya should be free.” — Congressman Don Beyer

Northern Virginia U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly joined Rep. Beyer in condemning Hijazi’s detention and false charges against the children’s rights defender:

“The Egyptian government has engaged in a well-documented campaign to suppress NGOs and human rights organizations... Aya Hijazi, an American working in Egypt, has been swept up by this campaign and her continued detention is unacceptable.” — Congressman Gerry Connolly

In a joint statement with Rep. Beyer, Hijazi’s family demanded her immediate release:

“Aya is a humanitarian, not a criminal. Instead of being free to serve those who are less fortunate, she has been forced to serve time behind bars. Our demand is simple: bring her home to us. Free Aya now.”

In December 2015, Hijazi wrote a letter from prison that included a plea:

“Do not leave us here in the jails and forget us, do not let us lose hope in justice and humanity.” — Aya Hijazi

17 October 2016 was Aya’s 900th day behind bars.

A group of prominent journalists, activists and human rights groups expressed their support and solidarity with the defender in a vast social media campaign.

Among those who joined the 900 Day Campaign were the US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, NBC News Foreign Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, U.S. Representatives Don Beyer and Gerry Connolly, and Senator Ben Cardin, among others.