Egypt Human Rights

Human Rights Concerns

The human rights situation in Egypt remains poor. Amnesty International has long-standing concerns on systematic torture, deaths of prisoners in custody, unfair trials, arrests of prisoners of conscience for their political and religious beliefs or for their sexual orientation, wide use of administrative detention and long-term detention without trial and use of the death penalty. In addition, AI is concerned that armed opposition groups have renewed attacks on civilians.

A recent report from Amnesty International points to how poverty in Egypt is intimately tied with human rights abuses. More than one year after a rockslide killed more than 100 people in an unsafe hillside slum in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, millions of Egypt's poorest people in 26 areas continue to live under similar hazardous conditions that threaten their lives and health, Amnesty International concludes in an investigation of the country's slums.

Amnesty International's report, Buried Alive; Trapped by Poverty and Neglect in Cairo's Informal Settlements, criticized the Egyptian government both for failing to protect people living under the threat of rockslides and other hazards and for forcibly evicting others after disaster struck in the Al-Duwayqa and Ezbet Bekhit areas of Manshiyet Nasser, one of Egypt's largest informal settlements, with one million people.

Bloggers in particular have been active in alerting the world to human rights abuses. The Egyptian government has responded by arresting two prominent bloggers, Karim Amer and Abdel Moneim Mahmoud who have been declared prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

Amnesty International is also concerned that the war on terror is hindering human rights in Egypt. The country has been in a State of Emergency since 1981, and despite minor reforms, State of Emergency legislation continues to give the government significant powers to use special courts, detain political prisoners and limit speech. In at least two cases, American intelligence officials have allegedly been linked to illegal renditions of Egyptians back to the country, where they have been allegedly tortured. The report, "Egypt - Systematic abuses in the name of security" highlights the impact on human rights in Egypt of the government's counter terrorism measures and the decades-long state of emergency.

A State of Emergency has existed in Egypt since 1981 following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, but these days the greatest emergency in Egypt is the state of civil society. Writers, scholars, intellectuals, political opponents and a range of non-governmental organizations are all under attack by the government.

But novelist Musaad Suliman Hassan Hussein, known by his pen name Musaad Abu Fagr, refuses to be muzzled. His courage in face of government oppression offers American activists an answer as to how to promote human rights in the Middle East at a time of declining American influence. To take action on his case, click here.

Egypt: Further restrictions of civil society looming

Amnesty International is concerned that Egyptian civil society continues to face increasing harassment, as one of the oldest human rights organizations in the country is up for possible dissolution and as the Egyptian authorities are preparing new amendments to further restrict the activities of on non-governmental organizations. Click here for more.

Egypt: Call for Immediate Release of Jailed Blogger Karim Amer
In February 2007, Egyptian blogger Karim Amer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for the "crime" of publishing on the internet material critical of Islam and President Mubarak. » More actions

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