Reports

“Security Forces Dealt with Them”

Suspicious Killings and Extrajudicial Executions by Egyptian Security Forces

The 101-page report, “‘Security Forces Dealt with Them’: Suspicious Killings and Extrajudicial Executions by Egyptian Security Forces,” found that the alleged armed militants killed in the so-called shootouts did not pose an imminent danger to security forces or others when they were killed and in many cases had already been in custody. Egypt’s international partners should halt weapons transfers to Egypt and impose sanctions against the security agencies and officials most responsible for ongoing abuses.

Search

Filter by

  • Human Rights Council Membership Requires Steps to Address Violations

    A Briefing Paper by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and Human Rights Watch

    In this 13-page briefing paper, Human Rights Watch and the EIPR said that Egypt’s terrible human rights record made that country a poor choice for membership. They nevertheless welcomed the Egyptian government’s public pledges to improve its practices domestically and to strengthen the capacity of the council.

  • From a Flood to a Trickle

    Neighboring States Stop Iraqis Fleeing War and Persecution

    Iraq’s neighbors are refusing entry, imposing onerous new passport and visa requirements, and building barriers to keep refugees out. In certain cases, they are also expelling Iraqis back to Iraq.This briefing paper focuses on new restrictive measures taken by Jordan and Egypt to prevent more refugees from coming.

  • Monopolizing Power

    Egypt’s Political Parties Law

    This 17-page briefing paper outlines the sweeping powers that Egypt's Political Parties Law grants to the Political Parties Committee, a body dominated by the president and the ruling party, to license and suspend political parties.

  • False Freedom

    Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa

    This 144-page report documents online censorship and cases in which Internet users have been detained for their online activities in countries across the region, including Tunisia, Iran, Syria and Egypt.

  • Egypt: Margins of Repression

    State Limits on Nongovernmental Organization Activism

    This 45-page report discusses the impact of the law governing associations, Law 84/2002, which came into effect in June 2003. The report concludes that the most serious barrier to meaningful freedom of association in Egypt is the extra-legal role of the security services.

  • Reading between the “Red Lines”

    The Repression of Academic Freedom in Egyptian Universities

    This report details ongoing government restrictions on classroom discussions, research projects, student activities, campus demonstrations and university governance.

  • Black Hole

    The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt

    Sometime at the end of February 2004, six Egyptians, alleged militants who had spent several years in exile in Yemen, the last several in official custody, were surreptitiously ferried from Sanaa to Cairo, very much against their will.

  • Still at Risk

    Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard Against Torture

    This 91-page report documents the growing practice among Western governments—including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands—of seeking assurances of humane treatment in order to transfer terrorism suspects to states with well-established records of torture.

  • Cairo to Kabul to Guantanamo

    A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper

    `Abd al-Salam `Ali al-Hila, a Yemeni intelligence officer, disappeared in Cairo in 2002. Since then, he is believed to have been held without trial in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

  • Egypt: Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai

    This 48-page report documents how, in the weeks and months after the bombing that killed 30 people in the resort town of Taba, the State Security Investigation agency conducted mass arrests in northern Sinai without a warrant or judicial order as required by Egyptian law.

  • Divorced from Justice

    Women’s Unequal Access to Divorce in Egypt

    This 62-page report documents serious human rights abuses stemming from discriminatory family laws that have resulted in a divorce system that affords separate and unequal treatment to men and women.

  • Empty Promises

    Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard Against Torture

    Individuals suspected of terrorism should never be returned to a country where they risk torture and ill-treatment.

  • In a Time of Torture

    The Assault on Justice in Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct

    This 144-page report documents the government’s increasing repression of men who have sex with men. The trial of 52 men in 2001 for the “habitual practice of debauchery”—the legal charge used to criminalize homosexual conduct in Egyptian law—was only the most visible point in the ongoing and expanding crackdown.

  • Egypt’s Torture Epidemic

    Torture in Egypt is a widespread and persistent phenomenon. Security forces and the police routinely torture or ill-treat detainees, particularly during interrogation. In most cases, officials torture detainees to obtain information and coerce confessions, occasionally leading to death in custody.