Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

The Cairo-based Land Center for Human Rights broke new ground with reports about the environmental and human rights, and working conditions for children in impoverished rural areas.

The press releases and reports of Egypt’s human rights groups were freely distributed in Egypt and internationally, in print and electronically. The Center for Human Rights Legal Aid and the Legal Research and Resource Center for Human Rights maintained informative Internet sites. During the year, the groups joined together in informal coalitions to oppose publicly any tightening of restrictions on freedom of association, particularly the ability of NGOs to organize and operate without state interference.

Specially assigned personnel from State Security Investigation (SSI) continued direct and overt monitoring of the activities of the local human rights community, although the groups told Human Rights Watch that SSI maintained contact with them in a polite and professional manner. Restrictions on freedom of assembly remained in place. Rights groups could not host press conferences or public meetings at locations other than their own small offices without the permission of SSI, which was rarely granted. On October 15 at three o’clock in the morning, police raided the Cairo office of the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA), an independent NGO that has campaigned on behalf of persecuted human rights activists across the region, including most recently Nizar Nayouf (see Syria chapter) and Khemaïs Ksila (see Tunisia chapter). The officer in charge questioned an employee about the group’s activities and its Arab and foreign visitors. It appeared that the police were particularly concerned that APHRA was organizing events in Cairo in support of Tunisian human rights activists.