Egypt's Interior Ministry on March 19 issued a decree allowing adherents of "non-recognized" religions to obtain vital identification documents without having to misidentify themselves as Muslim or Christian, a change that was urged by Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). A 2007 joint report by Human Rights Watch and the EIPR publicized this problem and documented the Interior Ministry's policy of refusing mandatory identification documents to Baha'i Egyptians as well as to citizens who convert from Islam to Christianity unless they agreed to deny their real religion. After the report was released, Human Rights Watch met with Ministry of Interior and other government officials and urged the government to change the policy, which discriminated against citizens solely on the basis of their religious beliefs. The EIPR, an Egyptian organization that Human Rights Watch works with closely, brought a case before the Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt, which accepted the organization's contention that denying necessary official documents from the Baha'i minority was discriminatory. Three days after the court confirmed the ruling, the Interior Ministry corrected the policy.
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