Justice for All: the Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt is the latest is in a series of Solidarity Center reports on the struggle for worker rights around the world that comprehensively evaluate the status of compliance with core labor conventions within a particular country.

	Misr Spinning and Weaving Company workers celebrate their strike victory in the town of Kafr el-Dawwar, February 8, 2007. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy

Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt examines Egypt’s current labor laws, how they align with international labor conventions, the Egyptian government’s record of enforcing of those laws, and whether its actions comply with each international core labor standard. The report comes at a time when workers in the thousands are holding an unprecedented number of strikes over a wide range of worker rights abuses.

Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt is a powerful tool for use by worker rights advocates that provides a clear and unassailable picture of the reality for Egyptian workers, with concrete recommendations for legal reform and improved enforcement. Past reports in this series have served as an effective foundation for advocacy by workers and their allies in the international community.

The International Labor Organization’s 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work sets out the following fundamental rights:

• Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
• The elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor
• The effective abolition of child labor
• The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

The information in Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt was gathered from interviews with worker activists and grassroots trade unionists at the enterprise level, labor support organizations and human rights NGOs in Egypt, and a variety of secondary sources such as the media.

The principal author is Dr. Joel Beinin, Professor of Middle East History and Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University. Marie Duboc, PhD candidate in Sociology at the School of Advanced Social Sciences Studies, University of Paris, served as the primary research assistant. Solidarity Center staff provided analysis and additional information.

The Solidarity Center hosted a series of events to launch this report:

For information on the event held at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in cooperation with Human Rights Watch on February 17, 2010, please go to:
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/?fa=eventDetail&id=2816

A transcript and audio recording of the event are also available.

Download Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt