The Egyptian Judges' Club (''Nadi al Quda'') was founded in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

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in 1939, primarily as a

social club A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a Club (organization), club. Exampl ...

for judges. It is not formally registered as a

professional association A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) is a group that usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in ...

, as that would place it under the jurisdiction of Egypt's Ministry of Social Affairs and limit its independence, an outcome the club's members aim to avoid. It considers itself and acts as the ''de facto'' representative of Egypt's judges, and has a history of speaking out in favor of

judicial independence Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...

and political democracy. Any member of the Egyptian judiciary and any Egyptian prosecutor can join it. It has over 9,000 members, including over 90% of

Egyptian judges ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years ...

History

In the late 1960s, the Judges' Club criticized what it viewed as the disregard by the government of Egyptian President

Gamel Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 a ...

for the law. In August 1969, the Nasser government dissolved the board of the Judges' Club, announced that the president would appoint its officers, and dismissed over 200 judges in what the judiciary called the "Massacre of the Judges". Subsequently, Egyptian President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

re-appointed the dismissed judges in 1973, and two years later the Judges' Club re-attained its autonomy. In the late 1970s, the Judges Club' issued statements in support of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

improvements in Egypt, and greater respect by the government for the

rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

The 2012 Egyptian protests

On 22 November 2012, President

Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012 2012 Egyptian protests 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, and the Judges Club called for a strike. In December 2012, Egyptian

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Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah filed a complaint charging Judges Club head Ahmed al-Zend and leading opposition figures with

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

and inciting to overthrow the government. Later in December 2012, when President Morsi called for a referendum to be held over the objections of protesters on a

2012 Draft Constitution of Egypt The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt was the former fundamental law of Egypt. It was signed into law by President Mohamed Morsi on 26 December 2012, after it was approved by the Constituent Assembly of Egypt, Constituent Assembly on ...

, al-Zend indicated that the Judges Club refused to supervise the referendum, saying:

More than 90 per cent of judges clubs all over Egypt will refrain from the supervision process ... Judges have always been at the forefront whenever we are called to perform any patriotic mission, however, this time it’s different. Most judges are refraining from monitoring the referendum because they have sensed severe violation of their authority as well as their independence.

On December 24, Al-Zind was attacked by around a dozen people who threw rocks at him as he left the club’s headquarters in downtown Cairo, injuring him and sending him to the hospital.

Leadership

As of 2012, the Chairman of the Club was Judge Ahmed Zend.

References

{{Authority control * Human rights abuses in Egypt Organizations established in 1939 Legal history of Egypt 1939 establishments in Egypt