We, the undersigned international non-governmental organisations, call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defenders Mohamed El-Baqer and Alaa Abdel Fattah, who were arbitrarily arrested and detained a year ago today. In the context of a massive crackdown on Egyptian civil society, the ongoing arbitrary detention of Mohamed El-Baqer and Alaa … Continued
Paranoia, ruthlessness and exploitation are all words which could be associated with the Egyptian government’s contentious relationship with social media.
Social media can be considered a double-edged sword for the Egyptian human rights movement. It allows individuals and human rights organisations to reach the public and spread a human rights perspective. However, social media is also used by the Egyptian government as a way to boost their own voice, publish their propaganda and conduct wide-scale attacks … Continued
On 25 August 2020, Bahey Eldin Hassan, a prominent Egyptian human rights defender, and director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) was sentenced in absentia to fifteen years in prison by an Egyptian terrorism court.
Punished for his Critical Tweets On 25 August 2020, the Fifth “Terrorism Circuit” of the Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Bahey eldin Hassan, a veteran human rights defender, to 15 years in prison on the basis of his critical tweets, 18 human rights organisations said today. The conviction of Bahey eldin Hassan, director and co-founder of … Continued
EuroMed Rights, Committee for Justice, Egyptian Front for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) & World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, The Freedom Initiative, and The Egyptian Human Rights Forum strongly condemn the campaign recently launched by the Egyptian authorities against the director of the Arabic … Continued
COVID-19 has provided another excuse for the Egyptian regime to expand its powers and crack down on rights, freedoms and rule of law in the country. Meanwhile, Egypt is facing its worst human rights crisis in recent history. After a continued state of emergency dating from before the Mubarak regime was lifted in 2012, Egypt … Continued
Many of us are under lockdown to minimise the risk of contracting COVID-19. This is not the case for human rights defenders in pre-trial detention in Egypt. The authorities’ refusal to release them from imprisonment in unsanitary conditions is indicative of their exploitation of the pandemic in an attempt to eliminate their critics. Egyptian prisons … Continued
Geneva, 13 March 2020 Human rights organisations regret Egypt’s lack of constructive engagement during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and denounce Egypt’s reprisals against NGOs and human rights defenders who submitted information for Egypt’s UPR. Egypt’s human rights record was reviewed in November 2019, when UN Member States presented 372 recommendations. Yesterday, at the outcome … Continued
EuroMed Rights, together with six other NGOs, sent on February 19, 2020 a joint letter calling for a comprehensive review of the EU’s relations with Egypt to the President of the European Council Charles Michel, the High Representative of the EU Josep Borrell and the Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi. The severe deterioration … Continued
