Joint Report on the Human Rights Situation in Egypt

Joint Report on the Human Rights Situation in Egypt Submission to the 48th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (January 2025)

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Joint Report on the Human Rights Situation in Egypt

Submission to the 48th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (January 2025)

Egypt’s human rights crisis is exacerbating. Over the past fourteen years, the government’s spurning of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations, including in 2019, has aggravated the ongoing political and socioeconomic crises. The absence of space for political opposition or democratic transition of power was underscored by the unfree and unfair 2024 presidential election, where peaceful dissidents, including those who challenged the incumbent were arrested. An economically floundering and punitive authoritarian environment alongside closure of all peaceful avenues for change portends dire consequences for Egypt. Through this report, our organizations aim to highlight prominent features of the ongoing human rights crisis and offer recommendations to address it.

Submitted by:

ANKH Association The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Committee for Justice The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
El Nadeem Center The Egyptian Front for Human Rights
Sinai Foundation for Human Rights The Egyptian Human Rights Forum
EgyptWide for Human Rights Law and Democracy Support Foundation | LDSF
Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE) Two other organizations that wished to remain anonymous due to concerns over potential reprisal.

The Right to Life

  1. Death is a penalty for 105 crimes in national legislation including the Penal Code (58/1937) and laws on military justice (25/1966), arms (394/1954), and narcotics control (182/1960); despite Egypt accepting 29 UPR recommendations in 2019 on suspending and abolishing capital punishment, and ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
  2. In 2020, constituting a notable rise in death sentences and executions, 126 people were executed in 26 cases, with the Cassation Court upholding death sentences of 55 people.
  3. In 2021, Egypt issued the most death sentences of any country and ranked third globally in executions with 84 people executed in at least 29 cases. The Cassation Court upheld death sentences of 80 people, half in political cases. Criminal courts sentenced 403 people to death.
  4. In 2022, criminal courts issued 538 death sentences while the courts of cassation and military appeals upheld death verdicts for 39 people. 30 people were executed in 11 cases, including 7 in the ‘Helwan Microbus ‘ and ‘Ajnad Misr’ cases, where defendants were disappeared and tortured in unofficial detention centers, and their confessions coerced. In 2023, 590 death sentences were issued throughout Egypt. Since 2013, our organizations documented the execution and extrajudicial killing of 299 persons against the backdrop of political cases.

Enforced Disappearance

  1. Egypt received seven recommendations in its 2019 UPR and accepted three on enforced disappearance, including to address impunity and investigate allegations of torture, extrajudicial killing, and disappearance; crimes for which the government pledged to form an independent investigative authority. The four rejected recommendations were on joining the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and ensuring detention center accessibility for unannounced official visits.
  2. Enforced disappearance is a systematic and widespread practice of the security agencies. Citizens are abducted and tortured in National Security premises, often to coerce confessions.
  3. Disappeared persons’ families seeking information continually face security threats and violations while their complaints are routinely disregarded by the Public Prosecution. Victims’ lawyers are vulnerable to harassment that not only restricts their work but can also lead to their arrest.
  4. Over the last four years, citizens are continually disappeared as soon as ordered released. Security authorities routinely deny holding them until it becomes apparent that they are defendants in new cases under investigation before a prosecutor, in a practice known as ‘recycling’.
  5. Between August 2022 and August 2023, 821 people were disappeared, increasing to 4,253 disappeared persons documented since 2015 by the Stop Enforced Disappearance Campaign. The campaign also documented many disappeared persons’ testimonies of torture inside security and intelligence headquarters. National Security has been repeatedly implicated in extrajudicial killings of arrested and disappeared persons. Although the Interior Ministry typically claims these persons were killed during counterterrorism operations, evidence has shown that some were detained and disappeared well before the dates officially cited for their deaths.

Detention Conditions

  1. Egypt received about 20 UPR recommendations in 2019 on detention conditions, detainee rights, and protection from torture and ill-treatment, including to take measures (legislative, administrative, or judicial) to uphold detainee rights, ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, establish a national preventive mechanism, and cooperate with the Special Rapporteur on torture. The Egyptian delegation’s response asserted that ‘all detention centers are subject to judicial oversight according to Egyptian legislation, and that the Prisons Law and its regulatory bylaws comply with the standard rules for the treatment of prisoners’.
  2. Prolonged solitary confinement has been increasingly used over the past four years under Law 106/2015, which amended the Prisons Law to extend the maximum period from 15 to 30 days while in ‘special high-security rooms’ detention can last up to six months. Solitary confinement is punitively used following conflicts with prison administration or protests against detention conditions, exemplified by the strike at Badr Rehabilitation Center (3) in February/March 2023. According to an inmate’s brother, prison officials emptied cells and transferred inmates to disciplinary units.
  3. Inmates at the Badr and Wadi Al-Natroun endure constant fluorescent lighting inside cells, leading to nervous breakdowns, insomnia, and chronic migraines. There has been a surge in hunger strikes and suicide attempts in prisons. In August 2021, several Tora Prison inmates attempted suicide, including blogger Mohamed ‘Oxygen’ Ibrahim. Between February and March 2023, leaked messages from political prisoners’ families indicated a rise in suicide attempts, including by hanging, slitting wrists, and overdosing.
  4. In October 2022, Badr 3 inmates went on hunger strike to protest poor conditions and a visitation ban. Alaa Mohamed El-Salami died in November 2022 after a two-month hunger strike. Poet Galal El-Behairy announced his hunger strike in March 2023; he attempted suicide in September 2023.
  5. Following the transfer of women prisoners from Qanater Prison to the Tenth of Ramadan Rehabilitation Center, leaked messages detailed complaints about surveillance cameras in cells. Due to such surveillance, women are required to wear full clothing, including hijab, at all times. They also must alternate sleep periods, where an inmate wakes the other if her body becomes exposed during sleep.
  6. Medical neglect is widespread in prisons, including in newer facilities. Medical emergencies are ignored and medication at times withheld, causing a rise in prisoner deaths. The ECRF documented 31 detainee deaths between 2023 and March 2024, including 15 in the newer ‘rehabilitation centers’ of Badr and Tenth of Ramadan. 
  7. Visitation bans are instituted under the Prison Regulation Law’s article 42, where vague phrasing grants prison officials discretionary authority to ban visits, including to repeatedly and completely close facilities for prolonged periods, as happened in Tora Prison and Badr (3) Rehabilitation Center. After the inmates’ hunger strike in February/March 2023 and repeated suicide attempts, families were permitted to visit detainees in Badr once every two months, through a glass barrier.
  8. The National Council for Human Rights, local and international rights organizations, and UN committees are barred from conducting surprise visits to prisons. Oversight is restricted to the Public Prosecution, which neglects to investigate torture.

Judicial Independence and Fair Trial Guarantees

  1. The government accepted 9 UPR recommendations in 2019 on the right to fair trials, including shortening pretrial detention and ensuring access to justice, due process, and lawyers, and consular assistance for foreigners. Egypt rejected 10 recommendations on military trials for civilians, mass trials, and fair trials for those sentenced to death. 
  2. The 2018 constitutional amendments and Law 77/2019 authorizes the President to appoint judicial body heads, undermining judicial independence.
  3. Detainees are increasingly denied communication, even their lawyers are barred from reviewing their cases. The prosecution recently renewed the detention of hundreds in a single session, obstructing lawyers’ defense preparation. In December 2021, the Justice Ministry implemented remote pretrial detention renewal through Decision 8901. Lawyers attend court sessions online with the judge, not in person with the defendant in custody, which undermines the defendant’s right to a fair trial.
  4. In November 2021, the torture of detainees was filmed at El-Salam First Police Station in Cairo. In January 2022 officers dismissed the circulating video as fake and Nasser Omran was arrested for posting it. On 15 February, the prosecution said the video seeks to destabilize the country and charged at least 20 individuals under Case 95/2022, including the torture victims shown in the video, with offenses related to terrorism and ‘spreading false information’. A 17-year-old minor was sentenced to five years imprisonment, and the other defendants given varying prison terms. All were placed on terrorism watchlists and under police surveillance for five years.
  5. In December 2021, the State Security Emergency Court sentenced HRDs and lawyers Alaa Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Ibrahim, and Mohamed El-Baqer in Case 1228; five years in prison for the former, four years for the latter two. Their trial lacked due process; they were referred to trial without their lawyers’ knowledge, and the prosecution withheld information about the charges. The court denied the defense the opportunity to speak, access the case file, or consult with clients. The prosecution presented only unreliable evidence; electronic publications and offenses allegedly committed while in prison. Despite El-Baqer’s 2023 presidential pardon, he remains listed as terrorist and subject to associated penalties, including an asset freeze and travel ban.
  6. In 2013, Justice Minister Decree 10412 established five specialized judicial circuits for terrorism and national security cases. Authorities have full discretion to refer cases directly to these circuits or transfer them from their original courts. Alongside expansions to counterterrorism legislation, particularly the 2014 Penal Code amendments and the 2015 Anti-Terrorism Law, terrorism circuits have become instrumental in targeting human rights activists.
  7. Throughout 2020, terrorism courts issued at least 20,998 detention renewal orders in 2,581 cases, with only 6.3% of defendants released, according to civil society monitoring. In 2021, 28,959 detention renewal orders were issued in 2,043 cases, as some of the defendants exceeded the maximum legal pretrial detention period (two years).
  8. In 2023, terrorism circuits drastically reduced pretrial releases in State Security cases. In 127 sessions across three circuits, 35,966 pretrial detention renewal orders were reviewed but only three releases ordered by the Court, constituting less than 0.1% of the total reviewed. Detention was typically renewed for 45 days.
  9. On 15 January 2023, the First Terrorism Circuit of the Emergency State Security Court sentenced to prison 83 defendants, including 23 children, in Case 653/2021. Despite numerous defendant allegations of enforced disappearance and torture, the court disregarded those and sentenced 38 people to life imprisonment; the remaining received prison terms ranging from 5-15 years.
  10. Although Egypt was recommended to stop prosecuting civilians in military courts, military courts have been increasingly used to imprison civilians. In December 2022, a military court sentenced 184 civilians to prison, sentencing 5 to death (2 in person and 3 in absentia), 31 to life imprisonment, and 30 to 15 years. Most of remaining defendants received sentences ranging from 3 to 10 years.
  11. In January 2024, parliament enacted Law 3/2024, multiplying offenses for which civilians could be arrested and prosecuted in military courts, including offenses impacting essential goods and supplies.

Human Rights in the Context of Combating Terrorism 

  1. On protecting human rights while combating terrorism, Egypt received 11 recommendations in 2019 and rejected two: to abolish legislation restricting human rights and release prisoners of conscience. The State Security Prosecution arbitrarily detains rights defenders through terrorism charges often together with accusations of social media misuse and ‘spreading false news’. 
  2. Egypt has invoked counterterrorism since 2013 to justify draconian legislation. The Terrorist Entities Law (8/2015) authorizes the Attorney General to request courts to designate individuals or groups as terrorist without trial for over three years, leading to asset confiscation and travel bans. The Anti-Terrorism Law (94/2015) broadens terrorism’s definition, facilitating prosecution of activists, HRDs, lawyers, journalists, and citizens for expressing opinions.
  3. The February 2020 amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Law broadened the definition of ‘financing terrorism’ and introduced new crimes with penalties ranging from fines to death. In November 2021, two more amendments were enacted: one granting the President authority to declare terrorism-related measures, and another banning the recording, broadcasting, or displaying of terrorism trial proceedings without court approval.
  4. 32. Politicians, HRDs, and journalists are vulnerable to austere sentencing by the Emergency State Security Court. Opposition party leader Abdelmoneim Aboulfotouh his deputy Mohamed Al-Qassas were sentenced to 15 and 10 years respectively. Moaz Al-Sharqawi, Tanta University Student Union vice president, was sentenced to 10 years.

Freedom of Expression and Digital Rights

  1. 33. In 2019, Egypt received 29 recommendations on guaranteeing free opinion and expression. The government accepted 18 recommendations on media and press freedom, and rejected 11 calling for the release of prisoners of conscience and ensuring their right to a fair trial.
  2. The Protest (107/2013) and Assembly (10/1914) laws have enabled the arbitrary prosecution of thousands of citizens for ‘crimes’ related to exercising fundamental rights. Egypt’s parliament repealed the draconian colonizer-issued Assembly Law in 1928, but the repeal was not published and thus the law remains in force.
  3. 120 people were arrested following demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza. Of these, 67 individuals remain in pretrial detention, accused of terrorism, unlawful assembly, and spreading false news, while six have been disappeared.
  4. The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed the arbitrary arrest of many doctors, trade unionists, journalists, and citizens for criticizing government policies. Typically accused of ‘spreading false news’, some have spent years behind bars.
  5. Reporters Without Borders placed Egypt among the worst violators of press freedom globally, ranking it 166th out of 180 countries. Egypt is one of the world’s largest prisons for journalists, the report noted.
  6. 2023 was replete with constant violations of press freedom throughout Egypt. Journalists, media personnel and their families were subject to harassment, arrest, prolonged detention, and arbitrary administrative investigations. At least 32 journalists were arrested between 2019 and 2023.
  7. On 16 February 2020, executive regulations were issued for the Media Regulation Law (180/ 2018), which imposed strict administrative requirements on journalists and media licensing. The law also prohibits creating or managing any website, in or outside Egypt, without licensing from the Supreme Council for Media Regulation. Violators face fines ranging from one to three million Egyptian pounds, along with office closure and equipment confiscation.
  8. The Media Regulation Law imposes broad and vague restrictions on publishing and distributing content. Article 4 authorizes the Supreme Council for Media Regulation to prohibit entry of publications into Egypt for reasons of ‘national security’ or constitutional infringement. The law grants the Council sweeping powers to block websites without requiring judicial order.
  9. Penal Code articles (80 D), (102 Bis), and (188) penalizes publication of ‘false news’ with up to 5 years imprisonment and fines.
  10. Penal Code article 184 shields public figures and institutions from criticism, for which persons can be penalized with imprisonment and fines. Article 178 Bis imposes fines for publishing images that may tarnish the country’s reputation, while Article 178 criminalizes publications vaguely deemed offensive to public morality, thereby curtailing artistic and creative expression.
  11. Over 630 sites have been blocked in Egypt since May 2017, especially those of independent journalism platforms and local and international rights organizations. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies website was blocked in 2023 after publishing its mid-term UPR report; the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Human Rights Watch websites are also blocked.
  12. ANHRI’s news website was blocked just nine hours after its 2019 launch. In 2022, the news website of Al-Manassa and three of its alternative links were blocked within 72 hours.
  13. In June 2020, security forces raided Al-Manassa premises, arresting editor-in-chief Nora Younis and detaining her for over 30 hours before her release on 10,000 EGP bail. In September 2022, the Public Prosecution summoned three Mada Masr journalists and accused them of spreading false news. Editor-in-chief Lina Attalah was also accused of operating an unlicensed website. They were later released on bail, but the case remains ongoing.
  14. The Telecommunications Law’s article 64 (10/2003) requires service providers to provide technical capabilities to military and national security agencies, violating the right to privacy.
  15. The Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law’s article 2 (175/2018) obliges service providers to save and store user data for 180 days and make this data available to national security agencies upon request.
  16. Articles 25 and 26 of the same law criminalize acts that ‘violate family values’ without specification, facilitating the imprisonment and prosecution of content creators. Activists and HRDs can be charged with managing websites and accounts for the purpose of committing a legally punishable crime, under the law’s article 27.
  17. In 2021, the phones of opposition politician Ayman Nour and a well-known television host were hacked. Politician Ahmed Tantawi also faced an attempted phone-hacking after announcing his intention to run for president.

The Right to Political Participation 

  1. Our organizations have underscored that the 2024 Egyptian presidential elections were neither free nor fair. Occurring in a repressive climate, the processes’ legitimacy was undermined by arrests of President Sisi’s potential rivals as well as of journalists and activists. Former MP Ahmed Tantawi’s family was targeted by authorities in May 2023 shortly after announcing his presidential bid from abroad. 194 supporters and members of Tantawi’s campaign were arrested, some on unsubstantiated terrorism charges while more broadly those who would openly support Tantawi faced threats and intimidation, to the extent that employees at notary offices declined to register endorsements for him. 
  2. Tantawi and his campaign manager, along with several supporters, were prosecuted under Case 16336/2023. Not summoned for investigation, they were instead referred to trial without notification, accused of handling election documents without proper authorization. On 6 February 2024, Tantawi and his campaign manager were sentenced to one year in prison. On 27 May, the Appeals Court upheld the verdict, and Tantawi was arrested in the courtroom.
  3. Supporters of Gameela Ismail, the Constitution Party leader, were prevented by authorities from registering endorsements for her at notary offices in several cities. According to her issued statement, there were incidents of assault, and one woman was sexually harassed.
  4. In December 2023, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation launched an investigation into ‘Sahih Misr’ website staff, referring them to the Public Prosecution for their coverage of the Egyptian presidential elections. In January 2024, the council summoned the editor of the ‘Zat Masr’ website under accusation of publishing false and provocative news after airing interviews with politicians and economists critical of government policies.

Freedom of Association and Transnational Repression 

  1. Over the UPR’s past three cycles, Egypt received 31 recommendations to lift restrictions on, and decriminalize, the work of HRDs; including to refrain from prosecution and to protect them from retaliatory practices.
  2. Law 149/2019 regulating civil work undermines civil society independence, granting authorities broad powers to interfere in an organization’s management and employee hiring, and in its projects and activities. Authorities have the right to shutter organizations, reject any foreign funding they may receive, and prohibit them from conducting surveys and field studies. Anti-terrorism legislation is also used to punish HRDs in Egypt, including Ramy Kamel, Patrick Zaki, Mohamed Ramadan, and others from the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms and Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
  3. Retaliatory practices continue against HRDs and activists abroad. In June 2020, Salah Sultan was detained incommunicado in retribution for his son Mohamed Sultan’s human rights activism abroad (founder of the Freedom Initiative). Similarly, the family of journalist and advocate Ahmed Gamal Ziada was targeted, with his father arrested and interrogated about his journalist son’s activities abroad.
  4. The Terrorist Entities Law is used to list as terrorist activists and HRDs abroad, subjecting them to deportation while restricting their free movement and financial transactions.
  5. Prosecuting HRDs abroad as defendants in new cases deprives them of their right to return to Egypt. They are pursued abroad by Egyptian authorities who aim for their deportation to Egypt where they would face imprisonment or disappearance. Sentences are issued in absentia against HRDs abroad who are also subject to retaliatory threats and media smear campaigns.
  6. Many activists and HRDs abroad have been denied the right to have their identification documents issued or renewed, restricting their ability to travel, live, and work legally, and depriving them of basic medical care and educational services.
  7. The Egyptian Human Rights Forum has documented cases of defenders being tracked, surveilled, and having their residences searched by Egyptian security agents abroad. Their families in Egypt are also threatened, with family homes raided and relatives targeted, some of whom are arrested or denied professional positions or promotions. Such intimidatory tactics are intended to pressure HRDs abroad to renounce their human rights activities or to force them to return to Egypt.

Sexual and Gender Rights

  1. Egypt has rejected recommendations to combat discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals (LGBTQI+ community).
  2. While Egyptian law does not explicitly criminalize consensual same-sex relationships, the government uses the Anti-Prostitution Law (10 /1961) to prosecute LGBTQI+ individuals, with penalties of up to three years imprisonment. Penal Code articles 279 and 278 are also used for the same purpose.
  3. Over the past five years, arrests and prosecutions have risen of LGBTQI+ individuals, who are subject to inhumane detention conditions. In 2020, 25 arrests and 21 cases were documented by rights organizations; 15 cases resulted in jail sentences of one or more years (8 verdicts followed an appeal). In 2021, eleven people, mostly outside Cairo, were arrested for public debauchery. In 2022, 43 people in 19 cases were prosecuted on charges of habitual prostitution, as reported by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. In 2023, between 35 and 40 people were arrested while in January 2024, two individuals were arrested for debauchery.
  4. The rights of LGBTQI+ detainees, whether transgender women or gay men, are prone to severe violations. In 2023, 28 individuals were forced to undergo anal examinations conducted by the Forensic Medicine Authority despite objections from rights organizations.
  5. Digital platforms, dating websites, and applications are used to track, target, and arrest LGBTQI+ individuals. Human Rights Watch documented 29 cases of arrest and prosecution in September 2023 alone, revealing a systematic security campaign against such individuals.

Human Rights in North Sinai

  1. From 2014 until 2021, amid prolonged armed conflict between Egyptian security forces and the ‘Sinai Province’ group affiliated with ISIS, deaths in North Sinai have risen 1,836 civilians, with 2,915 injured. 9 civilians were killed by security forces in 2020 and at least 7 in 2021, some due to stray and direct gunfire, or toxic gas inhalation.
  2. Armed clashes between state security and Sinai Province have escalated, with both sides committing rights violations potentially amounting to war crimes under international humanitarian law. In addition to subjecting residents to arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial killing Security and military operations in Sinai amount to collective punishment, with thousands of residents displaced and thousands of homes demolished, alongside destruction of agricultural lands.
  3. A 2021 presidential decree granted the Defense Minister broad powers to impose, without oversight, exceptional measures in North Sinai including curfews, forced evacuations, property seizures, and disruption of transportation and communications.
  4. Strict restrictions are imposed on the movement of people and goods in North Sinai, hindering access to essential supplies such as food, medicine, gas, and fuel. Water, electricity, and internet services are repeatedly cut off, constituting a policy of collective punishment.
  5. Sinai Province has conducted unlawful operations targeting civilians and security forces through violations like abduction and killing, including against Christian citizens. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, and local residents forcibly displaced as a result of the group’s direct attacks on residential areas (often using explosive devices), which have also targeted and destroyed schools. In areas under their control, Sinai Province imposes restrictions on women, and subjects civilians to unfair trials, security checkpoints, and regular patrols.
  6. Since mid-2015, tribes loyal to the military in Sinai began forming militias to support the government in its war against Sinai Province. Since July 2020, the army has been arming and regularly training pro-government militias. 
  7. In mid-2021, the military’s Tribal Affairs Office requested some tribal leaders to register their tribe’s members in militias loyal to the government, where they would undergo military training. By late 2021, these militias had begun armed operations against Sinai Province.
  8. The right to education in North Sinai has been severely undermined by the armed conflict. Schools are converted into military bases and are damaged during confrontations. Military and police forces have been implicated in using schools for military purposes, at times without evacuating students and teachers.
  9. 21 health facilities have been destroyed and closed by military forces during clashes with armed groups, as documented by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights; security forces were implicated in using health facilities for military purposes.
  10. Between 2013 and 2022, the military was implicated in recruiting children, including under the age of 12, likely constituting a war crime. Child recruits (aged 15-18) were assigned to dangerous tasks against Sinai Province members, who later pursued and killed these children.

Discrimination and Violence Against Women

  1. In the 2019 UPR, the government received 82 recommendations regarding women’s rights, accepting 70 but rejecting all recommendations related to lifting reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and criminalizing marital rape. Despite accepting recommendations on amending personal status laws and combating domestic violence, no relevant laws have been issued while legislation perpetuating violence and discrimination against women continues to be enacted. 
  2. Egyptian personal status laws and related legal procedures are determined by a family’s religion. On 5 June 2022, the Justice Minister formed a committee of 11 judges, including two women, to amend the Personal Status Law for Muslims. Although committee’s term was to end after four months with a new personal status law issued, this has not happened.
  3. Under the current Personal Status Law’s article 144, a mother loses custody of her children upon remarriage, while a father retains custody of his children after remarriage.
  4. The proposed Unified Christian Family Law, formulated without stakeholder consultation, has not been published yet. Under the current law, Christians cannot divorce unless one party converts to another religion. Custody is forfeited for a Christian mother married to a Muslim upon the children reaching seven years, in other cases the age is 15.
  5. The Penal Code’s article 60 serves to vindicate domestic and family violence while Article 17 continues to exonerate (or reduce sentencing of) men who rape, assault, or commit so-called ‘honor’ crimes against women. 1,006 cases of violence against women and girls were documented in 2022, and 950 cases in 2023.
  6. Penal Code articles 237, 274, and 277 are glaringly discriminatory in punishment for adultery: for men, up to 6 months imprisonment while for women, 2 years for the same crime.
  7. Rapists evade justice through Public Prosecution intervention. In the infamous ‘Fairmont Case’, several men (including prominent businessmen’s sons) were accused of rape. Witnesses to the crime were turned into defendants by the Prosecutor, who charged them with debauchery and spreading false news. After witnesses were imprisoned for four months and coerced through threats to change their statements, the prosecution closed the case.

Refugees’ Rights

  1. The ECRF has documented the detention of Uyghur, Afghan, Sudanese, and Syrian refugees. Asylum seekers arriving through conflict zones across Egypt’s borders have been detained arbitrarily while in 2020, an arrest campaign was initiated mostly Sudanese refugees were targeted in an arrest campaign following the killing of a Sudanese child in Cairo. Detainees faced deportation threats and medical neglect in inadequate facilities. Deprived of contact with lawyers or families, refugees have no mechanism for complaints, appeals, or access to the prosecution as long as it falls under national security jurisdiction.
  2. Sudanese refugees face mass arrest and forced deportation, with 800 Sudanese detainees forcibly deported in the first quarter of 2024 without being permitted to request asylum, contact the UNHCR, or appeal deportations.
  3. The ECRF has documented numerous cases of sexual harassment and rape against women asylum-seekers, with no medical examination of victims’ allegations or investigation and charges brought against perpetrators. Police refuse to register victims’ complaints and some are assaulted and falsely accused of prostitution.
  4. Egypt has accepted only limited numbers of Palestinian refugees from Gaza after 7 October 2023, most requiring medical treatment. Authorities impose what amounts to house arrest on them, prohibiting contact with the press. There are several cases of Palestinians previously in Egypt treatment but unable to return after the war. Their families were also denied entry, with exorbitant fees in dollars imposed for Gazans to enter Egypt.

Minorities and Marginalized Groups

  1. Egyptian authorities continue to resort to informal reconciliation sessions over the judiciary in sectarian violence cases between Christians and Muslims, sometimes leading to forced displacement. Sectarian attacks and incitement to hatred are ignored, with neither the root causes of such issues addressed nor legislation enacted to combat religious hate speech.
  2. On 23 April 2024, sectarian attacks broke out in Minya governorate following rumors of church construction; Coptic Christians were assaulted, their homes burned or otherwise assailed to compel them to flee. Multiple incidents of harassment and incitement against Copts predated the violence but was ignored security forces, leading to Christian students being assaulted at a school.
  3. On 26 April 2024, Copts in Minya were ambushed by a crowd of worshippers exiting mosques after Friday prayer, protesting church construction despite that the church obtained official permission from authorities since 2023. The mob threw stones at Coptic homes before security forces intervened and arrested several assailants. On 5 September 2023, dozens attacked a Christian-owned house under construction in Minya, chanting incendiary slogans against Copts and looting construction materials under the pretext that it was an unlicensed church.
  4. On 18 December 2023, sectarian attacks on Christians, including the burning of their homes, occurred in Al-Azeib Village in retaliation for church construction licensed by official authorities.
  5. Since the Church Construction Law (no.80) was issued in 2016, only 50 new churches have been approved for construction. Organizations have demanded the law’s review with the aim of arriving at a unified law for building places of worship.
  6. Shiites face persecution and arrest for disturbing social peace and undermining public security, with links to Iran alleged. A 2020 court ruling closed and suspended Shiite media platforms. Security forces prevent Shiites from holding religious celebrations at Hussein Mosque in Cairo, while Al-Azhar issues hostile statements against them.
  7. Egypt’s constitution recognizes only Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, while Baha’is are marked with a dash (“-“) in the religion section of their identity cards. Baha’is are required to practice their religious rites at home after the dissolution of Baha’i assemblies in 1950. In December 2021, the Administrative Court rejected a lawsuit to compel Alexandria Governorate to allocate land for use as cemeteries for non-adherents of the recognized three religions and citizens marked with a dash (“-“) in the religion section.
  8. Baha’i parents and guardians are forced to sign a declaration stating, ‘their children have no objection to taking Islamic or Christian religious education exams in public schools’.
  9. Although the constitution acknowledges the Nubians’ right to return to their lands, with a timeframe ending in 2024, the authorities have undermined this right though policies such Presidential Decree 444 of 2014, which declared 16 Nubian villages’ land as military border zones, thus prohibiting civilians from living on or using the land. Decrees 355 and 498 of 2016 authorized the confiscation of many Nubian lands for the Million and a Half Acres Reclamation Project.

Right to Adequate Housing

  1. The ECRF has documented continued home demolitions and excessive use of force to evacuate residents from the city of Rafah continues, with the aim of establishing military buffer zone along the Egyptian-Palestinian border. The army illegally evacuated tens of thousands of residents illegally, destroying their homes and farms. Satellite images between 2017 and 2020 showed the demolition of approximately 4,000 buildings in Arish.
  2. The ECRF documented forced evictions in a Port Said suburb, with the Interior Ministry violently suppressing residents’ attempts to stay in their homes. The government began evictions in February 2024 while ignoring residents’ proposals for local development.
  3. Repeated security raids seek to expel Warraq Island residents from their homes, without compensation, in order to appropriate land for government investment projects. Sieges of varying lengths have led to public and health service closures and residents arrested during anti-eviction protests.

Recommendations for the Egyptian Government:

  1. Suspend the death penalty with the aim of abolition.
  2. Release the tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience.
  3. End torture, enforced disappearance, and impunity.
  4. Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
  5. Implement all recommendations and decisions of the Human Rights Council, the Committee against Torture, Special Procedures of the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
  6. Discontinue the practice of ‘recycling’ detainees and amend legislation allowing it, especially the Criminal Procedures Code.
  7. Repeal counter-terrorism laws and align other legislation, including the Penal Code and emergency laws, with international standards.
  8. Publish the 1928 repeal of the Assembly Law (10/1914) and replace the Protest Law to ensure the right to peaceful assembly.
  9. Hold free and fair elections under international supervision.
  10. Ensure judicial independence and amend legislation enabling executive control over the judiciary.
  11. Abolish terrorism and exceptional courts and stop trying civilians before military courts.
  12. Lift restrictions on independent civil society, repeal Law 149/2019 and replace it with legislation respecting international standards.
  13. Allow rights organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect prisons.
  14. Amend laws regulating press, communications, and cybercrime to align with international standards.
  15. Issue legislation criminalizing domestic violence and a personal status law in accordance with international standards, in consultation with independent rights organizations, and form an independent committee to combat gender discrimination.
  16. Issue a unified law for worship sites and halt persecution of religious and ethnic minorities.
  17. Cease inciting hatred of and targeting the LGBTQI+ community.
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