Egypt

Egypt Human Rights

The authorities continued to severely restrict human rights organizations’ and political parties’ freedom of association. Constitutional amendments expanded the role of military courts in prosecuting civilians and undermined the independence of the judiciary. Following protests in September 2019, the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) ordered the detention of thousands pending investigation in relation to vaguely worded “terrorism”-related charges were investigated.

Extensive use of exceptional courts led to grossly unfair trials and, in some cases, death sentences. Executions continued. Torture remained rife in formal and informal places of detention. Conditions of detention remained dire, prompting mass hunger strikes. Women continued to face discrimination in law and practice. The authorities failed to protect women against high levels of sexual and gender-based violence. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in detention were forcibly subjected to invasive anal and sex determination tests.

Dozens of workers and trade unionists were arbitrarily arrested and prosecuted for exercising their right to strike and protest. The authorities restricted Christians’ right to worship by closing at least 25 churches and failing to provide approval for thousands of others to be built or repaired.

take aCTION: DEMAND EGYPTIAN AUTHORITIES IMMEDIATELY RELEASE RAMY SHAATH!

On July 2019, in the middle of the night, heavily armed, masked men entered the apartment of Egyptian-Palestinian human rights defender Ramy Shaath. Without a warrant and offering no explanation, they took Ramy away to detention and ordered his wife Celine Lebrun to leave the country. has been subjected to harassment by the Egyptian authorities for several years due to his activities as a human rights defender. He has been held in pre-trial detention since July 2019, in inhuman conditions.

Help us get 30,000 names on a petition calling for Ramy Shaath’s release prior to the second anniversary of his arrest this July.

urgent action: Anthropology student must be released

Following his arrest on 1 February, researcher and master’s student Ahmed Samir Santawy was subjected to enforced disappearance for five days. During this time, security forces beat him and kept him blindfolded, while interrogating him about his social media engagement and academic research. Take Action.

urgent action: Abused Journalist Accused of Terrorism on Unfounded charges

Journalist Mohamed Salah has been arbitrarily detained for 20 months without charge or trial. After a court ordered his release, prosecutors detained him pending investigations into a new case on bogus terrorism accusations. No investigations were opened into claims that he had been beaten at a police station in December 2020. Two journalists, married couple Solafa Magdy and Hossam el-Sayed, who were arrested together with Mohamed Salah in November 2019, were provisionally released on April 14, 2021 pending investigations. Take Action

States break silence to condemn Egypt’s abuses at UN rights body

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world expressed their strong support today for a joint declaration by UN member states condemning the human rights situation in Egypt which was delivered at the UN Human Rights Council.  In the declaration governments expressed “deep concern” for widespread human rights violations committed with impunity by the Egyptian authorities. Read More

The latest wave of arrests targeting critics, opposition leaders, activists and journalists under the guise of counterterrorism is part of the Egyptian authorities’ systematic persecution and brutal crackdown on anyone who dares to criticize them. The crackdown leaves no doubt about the authorities’ vision for political life in Egypt; an open-air prison with no opposition, critics or independent reporting allowed.