This OECD report is published by the OECD Directorate for Public Governance (GOV) under the leadership of Elsa Pilichowski, Director for Public Governance, and overall supervision of Tatyana Teplova, Head of Division for Policy Coherence for the SDGs, and Senior Justice Counsellor, Martin Forst, Head of Division for Governance Reviews and Partnerships, and Miriam Allam, Head of the MENA-OECD Governance Programme.
The report was overseen by Chloé Lelievre and Amr Soliman, Policy Analysts, OECD. The report was co-ordinated and primarily drafted by María Pascual Dapena, Justice Policy Analyst, with expert guidance and contributions from Nevena Vučković Šahović, former member and general rapporteur of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, James Kenrick, global child access to justice expert, and Abdelghany Sayed, PhD candidate in the University of Kent. It includes written contributions and input from Chloé Lelievre, Amr Soliman, and Nizar Touhami-Chahdi, OECD, and Marwa Salah, Project consultant. Valuable comments were also provided by Caroline Mina and Sandra Geahchan, OECD. Francesca Romani provided graphic design support. Editorial assistance was provided by Melissa Sander and Gemma Nellies.
The OECD is deeply grateful to the Government of Egypt for its continued engagement and support in this unique project and to all the Egyptian institutions involved for their remarkable co-operation. In particular, the OECD would like to emphasise its gratitude to the following officials: at The National Council of Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM): H.E. Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghafar, Minister of Health and Population; Dr Tarek Tawfik, Deputy Minister of Health and Population; Eng. Nevine Osman, Secretary General of NCCM; Dr Sahar El-Sonbaty, former Secretary General of NCCM; Ms Somaya Said El-Alfy, Head of the Central Department for Planning and Monitoring; Mr Sabry Osman, former NCCM Helpline Director; Mr Mohammed Aboushady, Child Protection Programme Director; Dr Hanaa Ismaiel, former NCCM Technical Office Head. At CPC – Governorate of Alexandria: Ms Amal Adel, Head of Child Protection Unit in the Child Protection Committee of Alexandria. At the Ministry of Justice (MoJ): H.E Justice Omar Marwan, Minister of Justice; Justice Hossam Sadek, Vice-minister of Justice for International Cooperation; Justice Amal Amaar, Vice-minister of Justice for Human rights, Children and Women; Judge Maged El-Antabli, Supervisor of the Goodwill Offices Committee on International Custody Disputes; Judge Ali Mansour, member of the Ministry of Justice’s Human, Women and Child Rights Department; Judge Rafik Salem, member of the Ministry of Justice’s Human, Women and Child Rights Department; Judge Ahmed Sanaa, member of the Ministry of Justice’s Human, Women and Child Rights Department. At the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS): H.E. Nivine El-Qabbage, Minister of Social Solidarity; Counsellor Mohamed Omar Al Kamary, Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Head of the Higher Committee for Alternative Families. At the Public Prosecution Office: Counsellor Mohamed Ghorab, Deputy Prosecutor General and Head Judicial Inspection Department; Counsellor Hossam Shaker, Chief Attorney General and Head of the Child Protection Bureau; Counsellor Hesham Gaafar, Attorney General and member of the Child Protection Bureau; Counsellor Mohamed El Hosseini, Chief Attorney General and member of the Child Protection Bureau; Counsellor Alaa Elkott, Attorney General and member of the Child Protection Bureau; Counsellor Ahmed Shabaan, Chief Attorney General and member of the Child Protection Bureau; Counsellor Youssef Deftar, Chief Child Prosecutor of Cairo.
The OECD extends its sincerest thanks to all NCCM Child Helpline lawyers and social workers, and members of the Alexandria Governorate Child Protection Sub-committees who provided valuable advice and insights into their daily work during the working visit organised in the assessment phase of the project. Further, the OECD is grateful for the participation of the Egyptian Child Forum members in the focus group discussion organised in the context of the OECD’s child-friendly justice support to Egypt.
This Strategic Review was made possible by the generous support of the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency. The OECD is deeply grateful to H.E. Yvonne Baumann, Swiss Ambassador to Egypt, Valerie Leitchi, Head of Swiss Development and Cooperation in Egypt, Michal Harari, Deputy Head of Development and Cooperation, and Mina Gendy, Local Political Affairs Advisor, for their continued co-operation.
In addition, the OECD expresses its gratitude to Ursula Kilkelly, University College Cork and Laura Lundy, Queen's University Belfast, who developed a tailored methodology to engage children of the Egyptian Child Forum in a child-sensitive focus group discussion.
The OECD is also grateful for the collaboration and advice provided by international organisations and civil society actors based in Egypt, including to UNICEF Egypt staff: Denise Ulwor, Head of Child Protection Programme in Egypt, Rana Younnis, Child Protection Officer and Lead of Justice for Children component, and Ibrahim Abugazia, Child Protection Officer for Justice for Children; to EFACC staff: Hany Helal, Head of EFACC Cairo; to Terre des Hommes staff: Laure Baudin, Country Director in Egypt, and Marta Gil, MENA Regional Access to Justice Programme Coordinator; Pablo Mateu, UNHCR Representative to the Arab Republic of Egypt and to the League of Arab States.
The OECD also thanks Claire Farid, Director and General Counsel of the Family and Children’s Law Team, Department of Justice, Canada (on leave), Judge Anne-Catherine Hatt, Juvenile Magistrate, Switzerland, Ursina Weidkuhn, former Child Affairs Prosecutor and international child justice expert, Switzerland, Jorge Jiménez Martín, Director of Spain’s Judicial School, Judge Véronique Isart, First Vice President in charge of the children’s judge function, Judicial Court of Lille, France, Sandra Smiljanić, psychosocial counsellor in Barnahus Slovenia, as well as Olivia Lind Haldorsson, Head of Children at Risk Unit, Council of the Baltic Sea States and President of the Promise Barnahus Network, and Shawnna von Blixen, Co-ordinator of the PROMISE Barnahus Network, for acting as peer officials and donating their time to share experiences from their countries through several policy dialogues and workshops.