Administrative Court grants victory to the victims of the Revolution and obliges the government to pay their monthly pension

January 18th, 2012

The lawyers of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights succeeded in obtaining a ruling from the Administrative Court in Cairo, in the case no. 33152 for year 65 lawsuits, against the Prime Minister, and the Ministers of Finance and Social Solidarity, obliging them to grant an exceptional pension to the injured victims of the 25 of January Revolution, each according to the degree of disability; the pension should ensure them a dignified life, and the injured victims should have the right –without any limitations- to combine this pension with any other source of income.

The facts go back to the government’s previous decision to grant an exceptional pension to the families of the martyrs of the revolution, according to the Prime Minister’s decree No. 303 for the year 2011, which was published in the Official Gazette in the issue no.8 on February 24th, 2011. In addition, the minister of Interior has made a public statement deciding that the martyrs of the police during the same period shall also be considered in the martyrs’ exceptional pension. The same was applied to the injured from the police, who received their treatment at the expense of the state and were brought before medical examinations to indicate the degree of their injury and the extent of their ability to go back to work or the amount of pension to be granted.

The civilian injured of the revolution have waited long to receive an equal treatment, but to no avail, prompting the center’s lawyers to file the case in May 2011, believing in the valuable sacrifices these injured civilians presented to this nation during the course of the revolution. The sacrifices made are undeniable, especially that many of them now suffer complete and sustainable disabilities, which creates the need for an exceptional pension for each injured person, each according to their degree of disability that denies him the right to earn their living like other normal people.

The lawyers of the center assured: we were trying to do justice to the victims of the revolution and to contribute to alleviating their suffering, especially that the government bodies did not treat them in an ethical, humane or legal manner that we expected and wished for. Thus, prompting them to do several demonstrations ending with the vents of the Mohamed Mahmoud Street, which claimed the lives of new martyrs and added tens of other citizens to the list of injured persons. Therefore, the lawyers of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights assert that this fair ruling, in addition to alleviating some of the economic and social suffering of injured persons, represents a moral victory for the revolution and the revolutionaries because it emphasizes that granting the exceptional pension to the injured victims of the revolution is not a “grant” from anyone, but a right they are entitled to by virtue of the law, for what they sacrificed for this nation.

The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights
www.ecesr.org/enz