In concert with the rigging of political processes, legislation has been passed in Egypt to ensure the Egyptian authorities are shielded from accountability while cementing their future political power. In 2018, six Egyptian human rights NGOs documented the sentencing of 175 people to death in Egypt in eleven politically-motivated cases, including the Rabaa Dispersal Case. Glaringly absent from those punished for the atrocities at Rabaa were its actual perpetrators. A July 2018 law exempts high-ranking army officers from accountability for any crimes committed from June 2013 to January 2016, which includes the 2013 mass killings and definitively fuels impunity.

The Egyptian government’s consolidation of the authoritarianism in its political processes is accompanied by a two-pronged attack on the media and civil society. Egyptian media has either been effectively nationalized or subjected to arbitrary security restrictions, and the few remaining outlets of media coverage not under the stranglehold of the state - social media and the international media - are now under attack. The freedoms of expression and the press are repressed even further through draconian new media laws and a cybercrime law allowing unlimited mass surveillance of citizens’ online communications by security bodies without a judicial warrant.

Repressive legislation has similarly been directed against civil society. The May 2017 ratification of Egypt’s NGO law, no. 70/2017, came as a shock to decision-makers around the globe who had been led to believe the draconian text passed by Parliament in 2016 would not be enacted as it was. Its implementation will stifle independent civil society, including development, social and humanitarian NGOs, and discourage further initiatives for any kind of civic work in the country. Law no. 70/2017 was preceded by the ongoing prosecution of Case 173 of 2011, in which government forced international rights organizations to shutter their offices in Egypt and suppressed Egyptian rights groups. Recent developments including the closure of NGOs and the imposition of travel ban on activists, together with asset freezes on activists and their NGOs, indicate a systematic plan to eradicate the entire human rights movement in Egypt.

The ACHPR’s failure to react promptly to these recent violations by the government could lead to the closure of more NGOs and to the sentencing of their workers. To date, at least 37 national Egyptian organizations are under prosecution in Case 173. Amongst these 37 NGOs are the most credible and independent NGOs in Egypt and the only remaining critical voices of the government’s political, economic, developmental and human rights policies. Six human rights organizations and ten human rights activists have their assets frozen.

The Egyptian government’s consolidation of attacks against civil society – most starkly revealed through Law 70/2017 and Case 173 - is occurring in the backdrop of a socioeconomic crisis in which the provision of the most basic services are urgently needed the most. Floatation of the Egyptian Pound in late 2016, a condition of a $12 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund, nearly halved its exchange value from $0.112 to 0.057 and inflation reached almost 35 percent. Egypt’s economic crisis also featured constricting space for workers’ mobilization. Workers’ strikes remain criminalized in Egyptian law. Authorities arrested or charged at least 180 workers for peaceful workplace strikes and protests in 2016 and 2017. Reports show that harsh austerity measures severely impacted the poor, who make up more than a quarter of the population – over 23 million people – according to official statistics. As Egypt’s socioeconomic crisis drags on, the new NGO law will deprive Egypt’s many vulnerable people of the vital educational, health and social services, as well as poverty alleviation, provided by civil society groups. They will also leave survivors of torture, and sexual or gender-based violence essentially without recourse for legal, medical or psychological support. Egypt’s Gini coefficient of wealth was a staggering 91.7% in 2017 according to the Credit Suisse Research Institute, making it the third most unequal country in the world—an increase likely to continue. Al-Sisi’s refusal to be held accountable to the public and his prioritization of regime survival over State stability, translate into acceptance of continuing mismanagement and corruption—a huge concern for the public, researchers have confirmed. The authorities continue to pursue grandiose projects such as expanding construction of costly urban communities only accessible to the wealthy. The focus has been on satisfying Al-Sisi’s power base, in particular the military-controlled sector of the economy—whose increasing weight continues to crowd out the private sector.

All these policies ensure that existing reform efforts remain highly painful yet insufficient to fulfil promises of prosperity and sustainable development. President Al-Sisi’s promises of socio-economic stabilisation and inclusive growth remain largely unfulfilled since 2014.

The Egyptian government’s assault on the media and civil society serves to consolidate its systematic closure of the political sphere and public space and the suppression of dissent, while eliminating options for the peaceful transfer of power in Egypt. The outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has repeatedly warned that “brutality and intimidation of the country's most thoughtful dissenting voices, the cutting off of the vital social and economic services provided by NGOs, and blocking information can only exacerbate radicalism and instability” in the country.

Egypt has brought further notoriety to itself for its campaign of hatred, criminalization and violence against dozens of people on the basis of sexual orientation, for allegedly attending a concert and peacefully raising a flag, or using a dating application. The Egyptian government has been leading a similar campaign in the African Union to undermine African NGOs working on LGBTQ issues.

The sharp deterioration of the situation in Egypt across a range of issues highlights the urgency for the international community to respond to grave human rights violations. It would also endanger the engagement of international, regional and national independent civil society organizations with the Commission’s processes. The Egyptian government’s repressive policies further undermine the ability of Pan-African and international NGOs to attend and effectively engage with the commission’s sessions. The silence of the ACHPR has become increasingly difficult to justify as the Egyptian government steps up its campaign to silence dissent and crush independent civil society. This silence has also perpetuated impunity and provides reassurances to Egypt’s security forces that there will be no consequences for committing human rights violations.

Over the past four years, Egyptian activists and NGOs who have collaborated with International Human Rights Mechanisms have been subject of systematic acts of reprisals. On the 21st of March 2018, in reaction to a memo sent by seven Egyptian independent human rights groups, including CIHRS, to the UN Secretary-General regarding the presidential elections in Egypt, a TV show host called on the Egyptian authorities to “deal with him [Bahey Hassan, Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) ] the same way the Russian spy was dealt with,” in reference to the nerve agent attack on Serjei Skripal in the United Kingdom earlier this month. CIHRS’, Egypt office Director, Mohamed Zaree has been banned from travelling and charged with distorting Egypt’s image abroad for coordinating the Universal Periodic Review Submission of Egypt in 2014. Acts of reprisals have left Egyptian organizations with no choice but to boycott the Universal Periodic Review of Egypt in November 2014. In 2017, an Egyptian human rights defender - Ebrahim Metwally- was arrested and prevented from boarding a flight to Geneva on 10 September to attend the 113th Session of the UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances (WGEID); prompting dismay from the UN, Mr. Metwally, co-ordinator of the Association of the Families of the Disappeared, is also the father of Amr Ebrahim Abdelmonem, who has been missing since he was arrested in July 2013.