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Egypt: Release Autopsy Report, Investigate Suspicious Death

Economist Died in Custody After Enforced Disappearance

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should urgently release the autopsy report and investigate the suspicious death of economist Ayman Hadhoud, Human Rights Watch said today. Hadhoud was forcibly disappeared on February 5 or 6, 2022, and died in the…
Ayman Hadhoud
News

Egypt: No End to Systematic Repression

Human Rights Defenders and Ordinary Citizens Targeted, Harassed, Tortured

(Beirut) – Egypt’s superficial attempts to create an impression of human rights progress failed to disguise the government’s brutal repression of all manner of dissent in 2021, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022. Despite ending…
An Egyptian intelligence security detail member stands guard near a banner showing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
News

Egypt: Scholar Unjustly Detained

Vienna Academic Faces Abusive ‘Terrorism’ Charges

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should immediately release an anthropology master’s degree student at Central European University (CEU), or present evidence of actual criminal wrongdoing, Human Rights Watch said today. Police arrested the student,…
Ahmed Samir Santawy, an anthropology master’s student at Central European University (CEU) detained in February 2021.
News

Condemnation of Egypt’s Abuses at UN Rights Body

Overdue Action is a Step Forward

(Geneva, March 12, 2021) – Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world expressed their strong support today for a joint declaration by UN member states condemning the human rights situation in Egypt, which was delivered at the 46th…
Egyptian security forces cordon off roads during curfew hours in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 29, 2020
News

Human Rights Council: Countries Should Take Bold Action on Egypt

Monitoring, Tough Message on Dire Rights Situation Long Overdue

(Geneva) – Egypt’s human rights community is facing “annihilation” by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government, more than 100 leading human rights organizations from around the world have warned today in a letter to foreign ministers. The groups…
Egyptian security forces have been involved in systematic abuses such as enforced disappearance and torture and have used abusive counterterrorism laws and measures to crush peaceful dissent. Egyptian security forces stand guard outside one of the entranc
News

Egypt: 49 Executions In 10 Days

Mass Executions Follow Suspicious Prison Killings

(Beirut) –Egyptian authorities executed 15 men convicted for alleged involvement in three cases of political violence as well as 2 women and 32 men convicted in criminal cases between October 3 and 13, 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. The…
A satellite photograph of Scorpion Prison taken in September 2016. Inmates suffer abuses in secret and are denied most access to the outside world. Satellite imagery
News

Egypt: Police Beat Man to Death, Family Says

Relatives, Witnesses, Journalists Detained

Update: On the morning of October 6, Prosecutor General Hamada al-Sawi said in an official statement that he ordered journalist Basma Mostafa released pending investigation. Lawyers said she was ordered to pay bail of 2,000 EGP (US$128). Her release has…
Islam al-Australi, 26, who died in police custody.
News

Egypt: Rights Defender’s Relatives Arrested

Midnight Raids, Disappearances Follow Torture Complaint

(Washington, DC ) – The ongoing harassment and intimidation by Egyptian security forces of the family of a US national seeking justice, truth, and reparation is a source of deep concern, 21 human rights and other groups said today. According…
From left to right: Dr. Salah Soltan, Ahmed Soltan, Mahmoud Soltan, Hamza Soltan, Mostafa Soltan, Esmaeel Soltan
News

Kuwait: 8 Egyptian Dissidents Unlawfully Returned

Deportees Face Torture, Persecution in Egypt

(Beirut) – Kuwaiti authorities on July 15, 2019 unlawfully returned eight Egyptian dissidents despite the serious risk of torture and persecution they face in Egypt, Human Rights Watch said today. The deportation of the men appears to…
Kuwait’s Interior Ministry released a video statement on July 12 alleging the eight Egyptians were sought for criminal offenses in Egypt. Video originally published on Kuwait’s Interior Ministry YouTube Page.
News

Egypt: Serious Abuses, War Crimes in North Sinai

Army’s Conduct Crushed, Alienated Local Residents

(Beirut) – Egyptian military and police forces in the Sinai Peninsula are committing serious and widespread abuses against civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Some of these abuses, part of an ongoing campaign…
Egyptian army tanks and armored vehicles in Rafah in North Sinai sometime in 2018. The army has demolished thousands of homes in the city that borders Israel and Gaza, forcibly evicting almost the entire population.
News

Egypt: Set Independent Torture Inquiry

Prosecutor’s Denial of Abuses Signifies Lack of Accountability

(Beirut) – The Egyptian authorities’ failure to end or impartially investigate torture and mistreatment in detention facilities reinforces an urgent need for an independent international inquiry, Human Rights Watch said today. As a…
Egyptian policemen secure Egypt’s national police academy. © 2015 AP Photo/Amr Nabil
News

Middle East Conflicts Spur Disastrous New Trends for Region

(Beirut) – Lawless armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) morphed into disastrous trends for the region in 2017, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its 2018 World Report. “Failed leadership, failed…
Smoke billows behind a building in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on December 3, 2017, during clashes between Houthi rebels and supporters of Yemeni ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. © 2017 Getty Images
News

Top 5 Reforms Middle East Governments Can Make in 2018

Respond to Youth Demands, Gain Respect in the World

(Beirut) – Middle East and North Africa (MENA) governments can respond to the popular demands of the region’s youth for reform by implementing five changes in 2018 to arbitrary, outdated legal systems that infringe upon citizens’ rights and liberties,…
Demonstration outside Parliament on December 6, 2016, with women in white dresses and wrapped in bandages, calling for the repeal of article 522 of the penal code.
News

Egypt: Torture Epidemic May Be Crime Against Humanity

Beatings, Electric Shocks, Stress Positions Routinely Used Against Dissidents

(Beirut) – Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s regular police and National Security officers routinely torture political detainees with techniques including beatings, electric shocks, stress positions, and sometimes rape,…
Members of security forces keep watch in Tahrir Square during the fifth anniversary of the uprising that ended the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Egypt, January 25, 2016.
News

Germany/Egypt: Agreement Risks Complicity in Abuses

Pact Could Tie Berlin’s Agents to Torture, Disappearances

(Berlin) – The German parliament should reject a proposed security agreement with the Egyptian Interior Ministry, Human Rights Watch said today. The agreement, which is scheduled for a vote on April 28, 2017, lacks human rights protections and would be…
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shake hands following a news conference at the El-Thadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt on March 2, 2017.
News

Egypt: Immigration Law Lacks Key Protections

(Berlin) – Egypt’s first law addressing irregular migration is a positive step toward shielding asylum seekers and migrants from criminal responsibility but fails to affirm important refugee rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The new law imposes…
A group of migrants held by Egyptian armed forces at a port in Egypt*, in June 2016.
News

Egypt: Serious Abuses in Scorpion Prison

Inmates Isolated, Beaten, Denied Food and Medicine

(Beirut) – Authorities at a maximum security prison in Cairo that holds many political prisoners routinely abuse inmates in ways that may have contributed to some of their deaths. Staff at Scorpion Prison beat…
A satellite photograph of Scorpion Prison taken in September 2016. Inmates suffer abuses in secret and are denied most access to the outside world. Satellite imagery
News

Ban Forced Anal Exams Around World

Abusive “Tests” for Homosexual Conduct Violate Rights

(Geneva) – Forced anal examinations on men and transgender women accused of consensual same-sex conduct have been reported in at least eight countries in the last five years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These examinations lack…
Poster by Shams, a Tunisian activist group, condemning the use of forced anal exams.
News

Egypt: 7 Held for Alleged Homosexual Conduct

Unlawful Arrests Undermine Basic Freedoms, Rule of Law

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should immediately release seven men arrested on September 6, 2014 for allegedly “inciting debauchery,” Human Rights Watch said today.  Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered the men detained and “physically examined”…
News

Egypt: Morsy Aides Moved From Secret Detention

Permit Immediate Access at Tora Prison to Lawyers, Relatives

(New York) – Egypt’s transfer of five members of former President Mohamed Morsy’s administration to Tora prison since December 17, 2013, fails to remedy over five months of secret military detention. Tora prison authorities have denied access to the aides…

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