The Ombudsman's Office

By virtue of its mandate that stipulates that NCW should strive to solve the problems facing women, a mechanism was established in NCW to handle women's complaints.

For this purpose, a cooperation agreement was signed between NCW and the European Union to establish the Ombudsman's Office with the aim of solving women's complaints, especially those related to any form of discrimination against women and those pertaining to personal status. Complaints are received, classified, analyzed, and brought to the attention of the competent authorities to resolve them. Recurrent complaints that represent violations of women’s equal rights, as guaranteed by the constitution, are submitted to the authorities concerned as issues of public concern that should be addressed through corrective actions or legislation.

A branch of the Ombudsman Office was established in the governorate of Aswan and the expansion of the services of the Ombudsman office to all governorates of Egypt is currently underway.

Objectives:

The Ombudsman's Office seeks to:
1- Monitor women's needs and complaints and to serve as a link between NCW and the women of Egypt who encounter any form of unconstitutional discrimination or unequal opportunities.
2- Ensure that women's voice and concerns are brought to the attention of policy and decision-makers.
3- Contribute to solving some of the day to day problems facing women.
4- Set up an information database containing the type of complaints received, the frequency of recurrence, and the obstacles they pose to women's progress, with the purpose of making the relevant suggestions/proposals/amendments to legislations to the authorities concerned

Any woman (over 18 years old) or a group of women who have been subject to any form of discrimination either in public or personal status affairs has the right to submit a complaint.

Requirements for filing a complaint:

For a complaint to be accepted and received by the Office, it must meet the following criteria:
1- Fall within the competence of the Ombudsman's Office.
2- Carry the signature of the complainant.
3- Be submitted by the complainant herself and not by anyone on her behalf.
4- Provide supporting documents.

Modus Operandi:

1- Complaints are received via mail, fax or through personal meetings.
2- Complaints are analyzed and classified
3- Counseling and assistance are provided to help solving these problems.
4- Complaints are examined from the social and legal points of view by specialized experts.
5- Issues of public nature are adopted and solutions are proposed for them.
6- Policies, plans, draft amendments are formulated and submitted to the constitutional institutions of the state.

A statistical glimpse on the complaints of Egyptian women:
The Ombudsman Office has received so far about 20.000 complaints and legal queries of various types. These included mainly personal status matters, work-related problems, implementation of court rulings, social security pensions, insurance, violence, and citizenship, etc.

An Example:
A 30-year-old woman complained that her husband had dismissed her from the marital home and sold its furniture. In addition, he also refused to financially support her and her two small children. She filed a lawsuit against him for alimony. He refused to implement the court ruling. This led her to threaten him to file an imprisonment legal action against him. Taking advantage of the fact that she was weak-sighted, he forced her to sign a legal document to the effect that she owed him money and filed a lawsuit against her, through which she was faced with the threat of being imprisoned.

Procedures taken by the Ombudsman Office
The staff of the Ombudsman Office, realizing her plight and the difficulty of her legal situation delegated a lawyer to represent her before the court. The case was won and the court, ruling that she was innocent, obliged the husband to pay her accumulated alimony (L.E 13,000).

Complaints may be submitted:

* In person at the following address:
Ombudsman Office, National Council for Women 1113 Corniche El-Nil. El Tahrir, Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
* By post to the above-mentioned address.
* By calling the toll-free number : 08008883888 (three lines).
* By Fax at number: 574962
* By E-mail: ombuds@ncwegypt.com

For Aswan, complaints may be submitted:
* In person at the following address: NCW Branch Office in Aswan, 3rd floor, El-Aqaad Library, Corniche el Nil.
* By post to the above-mentioned address
* By calling telephone number: 0972317094
* By Fax at number: 0972305860
* By E-mail: ombuds@ncwegypt.com