Countdown to Egypt’s National Dialogue: What you need to know

CAIRO – 1 May 2023: Egypt’s long-awaited National Dialogue is only one day away with the first session of the dialogue scheduled to be held on Wednesday 3 May to discuss key political, economic, and social issues.

The first session of the dialogue will be held in public to ensure the right of the public opinion in immediately and transparently following up on the developments of the dialogue, General Coordinator of the National Dialogue Diaa Rashwan said on Monday.

Rashwan called for representatives of the accredited Egyptian and foreign media platforms to attend Wednesday’s session at 2 PM in Nefertiti Hall at the International Convention and Exhibition Center in Cairo's neighborhood of Nasr City with no prior invitation required.

In remarks to Extra News today, renowned lawyer and member of the board of trustees of the National Dialogue Negad El-Boari stressed that the dialogue has been expanded to include all issues in order to change many of the current situations.

Besides the dialogue’s already announced economic, political, and social tracks, Borai said he suggested establishing a religious track for the dialogue.

In the following lines, Egypt Today will brief you on the information you need to know about the dialogue.

- The National Dialogue was launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during the family iftar event in April 2022.

- President Sisi said the dialogue will open its doors for “all political forces without an exclusion” except for the parties that have shown violent behavior or sponsored terrorist attacks.

- Sisi pledged to attend the final sessions of the dialogue.

- The dialogue aims to reach a common ground with regard to priority issues facing the Egyptian society on the political, economic, and social tracks.

- The dialogue will see with the participation of various spectrums of the Egyptian society representing people, including public figures, activists, experts, writers, intellectuals, and politicians.

- The dialogue will be attended by dozens of political parties, syndicates, trade unions, civil society groups, and government officials.

- Rashwan has stressed that the dialogue will take place with “no red lines” in an atmosphere of freedom of expression.

- The dialogue has three tracks (political, economic, and social) led by rapporteurs and assistant rapporteurs with 19 subcommittees to discuss key issues in these three tracks.

- The release of prisoners of conscience will be on top of the agenda of the National Dialogue among several issues of human rights, including securing more fair trial guarantees, and more space for the work of human rights groups.

- Economic issues that are set to be discussed during the dialogue’s sessions include inflation, budget deficit, foreign debt, and efforts of containing the repercussions of the Ukraine war.

- Since the issuance of the National Dialogue and the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April last year, more than 1,000 pretrial detainees have been released and many convicted prominent figures also left prison.

- The National Dialogue is a step on the way to promote human rights in Egypt. Sisi’s call for the dialogue came only a few months after he launched the National Strategy for Human Rights, which aims to promotes political, social, and economic human rights of people and marginalized groups.