Egypt: Government’s unrelenting criminalization of human rights work through legislation and retaliation detailed in UPR report

In CIHRS Publications, Egypt /Road Map Program, Thematic Reports by CIHRS

Egypt: Government’s unrelenting criminalization of human rights work through legislation and retaliation detailed in UPR report

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23/01/2025

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The United Nations is set to review Egypt’s human rights file on 28 January 2025 as part of the fourth session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) renews its call to the Egyptian government to end its criminalization of human rights work and independent civil society, at both the level of policy and practice. CIHRS’s report submitted to the UN on freedom of association in Egypt reviews an array of the Egyptian authorities’ practices and laws that serve  to criminalize civil work and retaliate against human rights defenders. The government continues to massively expand repressive legislation used to retaliate against defenders and undermine the independence of civil society and NGOs, together with engaging in arbitrary practices involving abuse and intimidation against all considered as opposition or dissidents, especially those concerned with human rights issues.

The recommendations of CIHRS affirm the need to remove all unjustified restrictions on independent civil society, stop the ongoing retaliatory campaigns against activists and human rights defenders, and release all political prisoners detained for their work in the field of human rights. CIHRS further calls on the Egyptian government to repeal Law 149 of 2019 regulating civil society work and replace it with the draft law that was prepared in cooperation with civil society organizations during the term of former Minister of Social Solidarity Dr. Ahmed El-Borai.

The report further recommends repealing ‘counterterrorism’ legislation, including the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 94 of 2015 and the Terrorist Entities Law No. 8 of 2015, considering that the provisions of the Penal Code contain sufficient legal texts to confront genuine terrorism instead of  arbitrarily jailing political opposition. The UPR further calls for the repeal of the Protest Law (107/2013) and the publication of the Assembly Law (10/1914) in the Official Gazette, which would activate its repeal in 1928 by the Egyptian Parliament.

In its report to the UN, CIHRS reviews the Egyptian government’s use of provisions in Law No. 149 of 2019 to restrict independent civil society through its vague terminology that is widely open to interpretation, including terms such as public ‘order’ and ‘morals’, and national ‘unity’ and ‘security’. Article 14 of the law further limits the work of civil society organizations to what aims to ‘develop society’ and ‘considers the state’s development plans,’ without any explanation of these terms. Article 15 thereof prohibits civil society organizations from conducting opinion polls or conducting field studies without the approval of state officials.

Anti-terrorism legislation is routinely used by the Egyptian government to restrict the work of civil society, including by arbitrarily detaining and imprisoning defenders, preventing them from traveling, and freezing their assets. In March 2023, the State Security Emergency Court issued prison sentences ranging from five years to life against 29 defenders from the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms,  and placed them on the terrorist lists,  over charges of involvement in terrorist crimes in Case No. 1552 of 2018. After the expiry of the prison term for some of them, the government continued to engage in abuse and retaliation against human rights lawyer Ezzat Ghoneim, lawyer Aisha el-Shater, and human rights activist Hoda Abdel Moneim; who were ‘recycled’  into a new case, investigated, and had their detention renewed. Ibrahim Metwally, the coordinator of the League of the Families of the Forcibly Disappeared, faced fabricated legal prosecution for nearly seven years in successive cases, in retaliation for his cooperation with United Nations mechanisms in learning the fate of forcibly disappeared persons in Egypt.

CIHRS submitted a copy of the report to the United Nations in July 2024, as part of the preparations for the fourth session of the Universal Periodic Review of Egypt’s human rights file before the United Nations, scheduled to be held at the end of this January.

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Submission by:

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

Freedom of Association in Egypt

UPR Session: 48th session of the UPR

(January 2025)

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) is an independent regional human rights organization established in 1994. For 30 years, CIHRS has maintained its presence as an effective organization based in the South (Egypt and Tunisia), with offices in some Northern countries (Switzerland, Belgium and France). It takes pride in its role of breaking barriers between peoples of the North and South by promoting transnational cultural and human rights cooperation. CIHRS builds the capacity of human rights organizations and forms coalitions and networks, striving for better representation in international human rights mechanisms that influence policies towards human rights and democracy issues in the Arab region.
CIHRS enjoys special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

General context for freedom of association in Egypt

  1. During Egypt’s 2019 Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the government received dozens of recommendations on freedom of association, the situation of human rights defenders, and civic space, including to rescind repressive laws and align legislation with Egypt’s international human rights obligations, and to investigate and hold accountable perpetrators of threats, reprisals, and other acts of violence targeting rights defenders and journalists.1

  2. Although the government announced several initiatives to improve human rights, including for independent civil society and human rights defenders (HRDs), the human rights situation in Egypt has continued to deteriorate with the drastic expansion of draconian legislation to repress dissent and opposition, especially targeting HRDs and independent civil society. Rights advocacy in Egypt now entails acute risk of arbitrary detention, torture, forced disappearance, and prolonged imprisonment. HRDs and their family members (who are at times targeted in retaliation for their relative’s activism) continue to pay the price of the Egyptian government’s determination to eradicate independent civil society and genuine human rights reform.

  3. Human rights defenders in Egypt are targeted for exercising their right to association. Law 149/2019 on regulating civil work, Law 94/2015 on countering terrorism, Law 8/2015 on terrorist entities, and Egypt’s Penal Code constitute the primary legislation used to restrict civil society work, arbitrarily detain and imprison HRDs, ban them from travel, and freeze their assets. Extralegal measures are also used to punish and intimidate HRDs, including torture while in custody, assault, government-sponsored media smear campaigns, and death threats. The erosion of judicial independence has also critically stricken free association and the situation of human rights defenders. Egypt’s judiciary has become instrumental to punishing HRDs while judicial authorities routinely ensure impunity for crimes committed by security forces against HRDs.

Law on Regulating Civil Work

  1. In 2017, President Abdelfattah al-Sisi ratified Law 70/2017 regulating civic work. The draconian law contravened Egypt’s constitution and international obligations, coming under heavy criticism from independent civil society and the international community.2

  2. To counteract increasing criticism of Egypt’s human rights record, Law 70/2017 was replaced by Law 149/2019.3 The new law effectively eliminates civil society independence by ensuring that civil society organizations (CSOs) cannot operate without constant and direct interference from Egyptian authorities.

  3. Article 14 of Law 149/2019 limits CSOs’ work to that aimed at the ‘development of society’ while ‘taking into account state development plans’. The implementing regulations do not define societal development, leaving the law open to interpretations that could be used to deny legal status to CSOs or suspend their operations on the grounds of nonalignment to state development plans or lack of societal need for a particular CSO’s activities.

  4. Article 15 explicitly bans CSOs from conducting polls or field studies without state officials’ approval and uses broad and malleable terms to restrict civil society such as ‘public order’, ‘public morality’, ‘national unity’ and ‘national security’.4

  5. The law established an administrative unit within the Ministry of Social Solidarity to oversee and monitor CSOs. Unit representatives designated by the ministry may enter CSO premises to review all its documentation and activities, under Article 75 of the law.5 The law also facilitates ministerial challenges to the candidacy of CSO board members.6 , 7

  6. Under Article 45 the competent minister is authorized to suspend operations of an organization or shutter its offices for up to a year on grounds such as launching civic campaigns or initiatives without a permit, opening a new office without notifying the ministry, or engaging in activities not listed in the organization’s statute.

  7. Article 19 prohibits local CSOs from engaging in any form of cooperation with foreign organizations in Egypt or abroad without prior approval from the competent minister and the Administrative Unit. Article 72 prohibits employment of foreign staff at any level without ministerial authorization.

  8. The law requires prior authorization for the dispersal of funds received from abroad to CSOs, enabling the ministry to deny the funds. If denied, funds must be returned within five days, rendering it effectively impossible to appeal the decision.8 The grounds for denial are not enumerated by the law, leaving it to the ministry’s discretion.

  9. Law 149/2019 treats CSO assets as public funds (Article 23), meaning that in criminal matters, CSO employees are treated as public officials. In turn, they are subject to harsher penalties for financial malfeasance, up to life imprisonment.

  10. While Law 149/2019 severely undermines the independence of CSOs, an array of other laws and practices are deployed to restrict and demobilize activists and HRDs. For example, Article 78 of the Penal Code, amended in 2014 by presidential decree, uses vague terminology allowing for sentences of up to life imprisonment on the basis of receiving foreign funding.9

  11. Case 173/2011 exemplifies how the weaponization of legislation against civil society. Case 173 originally targeted international human rights organizations and their staff on charges of operating an unregistered organization and receiving unauthorized foreign funding. 43 Egyptian and foreign staff of the international organizations were sentenced to between 1–5 years in prison in 2013 (the verdict was overturned in 2018).

  12. In 2016, Case 173 was expanded to include Egyptian organizations. Over 30 Egyptian human rights defenders were banned from traveling, and nearly a dozen staff and their organizations had their assets frozen. These included the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Arab Centre for Independence of Judiciary and Legal Profession, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, Nazra for Feminist Studies, Hisham Mubarak Law Center, and the Egyptian Centre for the Right to Education.

  13. After eight years under travel bans and asset freezes instituted by Case 173, the investigation was closed against most Egyptian organizations. Nevertheless, the assets remain frozen of some employees no longer under investigation, including Azza Soliman. Although the government’s allegations were proven unfounded, neither an official apology has been issued nor reparations made. The Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession remains under investigation in a politicized offshoot of Case 173/2011, while some HRDs who were cleared from Case 173 still face prosecution in other politically-motivated cases, including Mohamed Zaree of CIHRS, who faces a spurious tax evasion case.10

  14. Egypt’s counterterrorism framework is vital to the government’s aim of punishing human rights defenders and raising the cost of civic work; forced disappearances, torture, and long prison sentences accompany the use of counterterrorism legislation against members of civil society and activist communities.

Counterterrorism Legislation

  1. Egypt received recommendations on counterterrorism in its 2019 UPR, including to align counterterrorism legislation with international standards and repeal repressive legislation, including Law 94/2015 on countering terrorism.11 In defiance of these recommendations, Law 94 was amended in 2021 to be more draconian, granting exceptional powers to the President.12

  2. Law 94, issued in 2015 by presidential decree, uses ambiguous and broad terminology to define terrorism and enables security forces to commit with impunity the crimes of torture, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killing.13

  3. President Sisi also issued by decree Law 8/2015, regulating the government’s terrorist entity list. The law enables the prosecutor to request that the criminal court list individuals or groups—without due process—as terrorist. Inclusion on the terrorist list arbitrarily freezes a person’s assets and bans them from travel. HRDs listed as terrorist include Mohamed al-Baqer, Hoda Abdelmoniem, Ezzat Ghoneim, and almost 20 employees of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms.

  4. In 2013, the justice minister issued Decree 10412/2013, designating five felony court circuits ostensibly for terrorism and national security cases (although their jurisdiction is ambiguously defined). With unfettered discretion, the authorities can directly assign cases to terrorism circuits, resulting in the arbitrary transfer of cases from their courts of original jurisdiction to terrorism courts. With the expansion of counterterrorism legislation, such as the 2014 Penal Code amendments and the 2015 Counter-Terrorism Law, terrorism circuit courts have effectively become weapons to target HRDs.

  5. Ibrahim Metwally, coordinator of the League for the Families of the Disappeared, has been prosecuted for nearly seven years in one sham case after another, with the aim of keeping him behind bars in reprisal for his cooperation with UN mechanisms.14 Metwally was arrested in 2017 while traveling to Geneva to attend a meeting with the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearance.15 His detention has been continually renewed by a terrorism circuit court.16

  6. Coptic Christian activist Ramy Kamel was arrested in November 2019, days before he was to travel to Geneva to participate in the UN Forum on Minority Issues. Kamel was charged with terrorism crimes under Case 1475/2019. Over two weeks before his arrest, Kamel was beaten, tortured, and threatened to cease his activism after a non-official National Security investigation.17 The case remains open despite Kamel’s release after over two years in pretrial detention. Similar cases include those of Mohamed Ramadan, Amr Imam, and Patrick Zaky.18

  7. In June 2020, security forces arrested five cousins of Egyptian-American human rights defender Mohamed Soltan in retaliation for Soltan’s filing of a case in the US against a former Egyptian prime minister for torture and violations while he had been imprisoned in Egypt.19 His cousins were forcibly disappeared for two days before being charged with ‘joining a terrorist organization’ and ‘spreading false news’. Soltan’s father Salah, imprisoned since 2013 and currently held incommunicado, is subjected to worsening conditions, including denial of urgent medical care.20

  8. In March 2023, 29 HRDs from the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, charged with terrorism crimes, were sentenced by an Emergency State Security Court to between five years and life in prison and were also placed on the government’s terrorist entities list. Over a dozen of those convicted had been held in unlawful pretrial detention since 2018, including Ezzat Ghoneim, Hoda Abdelmoniem, Aisha al-Shater, and Mohamed Abou Huraira.21

  9. Bahey eldin Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, was sentenced in 2020 to a total of 18 years in prison, including a 15-year sentence issued by a terrorism court, where the evidence included comments Hassan made at a UN Human Rights Council side event.22

  10. In November 2020, three senior staff from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights were arrested and charged with terrorism. Despite their release following international outcry, they remain banned from traveling and their assets remain frozen.23

  11. Other legislation, such as the Protest Law (107/2013) and the Assembly Law (10/1914), also violate the right to association and impede the ability of civil society to operate freely. Although the colonial-era Assembly Law had been repealed by the Egyptian parliament in 1928, the repeal was never published in the official gazette and therefore remains in force, leading to the imprisonment of thousands of individuals.24

Erosion of Judicial Independence

  1. The government crackdown on independent civil society and human rights defenders through the aforementioned legislation has been reinforced by the erosion of judicial independence and denial of the right to a fair trial.

  2. In December 2021, an Emergency State Security Court sentenced human rights defenders and lawyers Alaa Abdelfattah, Mohamed Ibrahim, and Mohamed al-Baqer to five years in prison for the former, and four years for the latter two, in Case 1228/2021. Their trial reflected the complete absence of due process that has come to characterize the Egyptian judiciary in political cases over recent years.

  3. The aforementioned three activists were referred to trial on 18 October without the knowledge of their lawyers, and the prosecution refused to inform the lawyers of the charges against them. The Emergency State Security Misdemeanors Court did not allow the defense to be heard or to consult with their clients for three sessions, nor did the court allow the defense to obtain the case file or a copy of it. Meanwhile, no credible evidence was presented against Abdelfattah, al-Baqer, and Ibrahim, only dated social media publications and supposed violations committed in prison.25 Though al-Baqer received a presidential pardon in 2023 and was released from prison, he remains on the terrorist entities list and is subject to its penalties, including an asset freeze and travel ban.

  4. Similarly, staff of the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms and the director of CIHRS, Bahey eldin Hassan, highlighted in paragraphs 25 and 26 of this report, were deprived of due process throughout their trials. Many human rights defenders spend years on end in pretrial detention, ordered and renewed by terrorism courts, as in the case of Ibrahim Metwally, highlighted in paragraph 22.

  5. The erosion of judicial independence has been exacerbated by legislative changes that give the president broad powers over the judiciary. In 2019, parliament passed Law 77/2019 on the appointment of judicial entity heads, which establishes executive control over the judiciary by granting the president the right to select judicial heads from a pool of senior judges.26

  6. Executive influence over the judiciary was cemented with the 2019 amendment of constitutional articles 185 and 193, which authorized the president to appoint the heads of judicial entities.27

  7. Due to his criticism of the parliamentary elections’ lack of judicial oversight, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Hossam Bahgat was charged with ‘insulting the Elections Authority’ and ‘disseminating false news’ and sentenced to a 10,000 EGP fine.

Impunity for Extrajudicial Measures Against Human Rights Defenders and Independent Civil Society

  1. Not only has the erosion of judicial independence undermined the right to a fair trial, but it has also guaranteed impunity for the Egyptian authorities’ retributive and intimidatory extralegal measures against human rights defenders.

  2. In December 2019, Egyptian human rights organizations called for an investigation into the disappearance and torture of Ibrahim Ezzedine, a human rights researcher with the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms who appeared before the prosecution after 167 days of enforced disappearance.28 The call went unheeded, and the prosecutor disregarded the obvious marks of torture on Ezzedine’s body.29 Ezzedine was released in 2022, after being detained for over three years on terrorism charges.

  3. In 2019, Gamal Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, was assaulted several times in three months, including by police officers. In one of the incidents on 19 December, police from National Security jumped out of three cars and assaulted Eid in broad daylight, spraying him with paint and threatening bystanders with firearms to prevent them from helping Eid.30

  4. Other attacks on Gamal Eid resulted in injuries to his ribs, arm, and leg; his car was also stolen and another he had borrowed was vandalized.31 A complaint filed by Eid with the prosecutor in relation to the assault has been shelved without investigation.32

  5. In 2018, an Egyptian talk show host closely affiliated with the government made death threats on live television against CIHRS director Bahey eldin Hassan. Hassan filed a complaint with the prosecutor; it was shelved without investigation. The host was appointed by President Sisi to a government post tasked with monitoring media professionalism.33 Meanwhile, Aida Seif Aldawla, director of the Nadeem Center against Violence and Torture, was summoned in 2019 before the prosecution in relation to a complaint filed by a ‘private individual’ accusing her of ‘damaging the reputation of the country by publishing false statements.’34

  6. Private media, which has come to be dominated by Egyptian security institutions over the past decade,35 has been repeatedly used to defame, smear, and threaten human rights defenders, as recently exemplified by the 2024 smear campaign against Ahmed Salem, director of Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, in response to a report published by the foundation.36

  7. Hundreds of websites continue to be blocked without judicial order by authorities in Egypt, who at times do not even acknowledge their responsibility for this censorship.37

Egyptian authorities should take immediate and concrete measures to

  1. End the de-facto criminalization of human rights work and independent civil society, and cease punishing, threatening, and intimidating human rights defenders. All persons detained for their human rights work should be released.

  2. Remove undue restriction on independent civil society by repealing Law 149/2019 and replacing it with the draft law formulated through civil society and government cooperation during the tenure of former minister of social solidarity Dr. Ahmed El-Boraie.

  3. Repeal national counterterrorism legislation, including Law 94/2015 on counterterrorism and Law 8/2015 on terrorist entities. Align other legislation, such as the Penal Code, to international standards that guarantee the right of civil society to operate freely.

  4. Abolish exceptional courts and terrorism circuit courts.

  5. Repeal the Protest Law (107/2013) and publish the 1928 repeal of the Assembly Law (10/1914) in the official gazette.

  6. Ensure judicial independence, primarily through the amendment of legislation that grants power over the judiciary to the president and the executive authorities.

  7. Cease all acts of reprisal against human rights defenders and end impunity for the perpetrators of reprisals.

Footnotes

  1. For instance, see recommendations 31.178, 31.182, and 31.186 of Egypt’s 3rd Cycle (2019) Matrix of Recommendations. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/eg-index. ↩
  2. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Legal and Constitutional Grounds for Objections to the Parliament’s Bill on Civic Associations,” December 2016. Available at: https://cihrs.org/a-letter-and-legal-memorandum-to-the-president-of-the-arab-republic-of-egypt-repeal-this-ngo-law-the-most-repressive-in-egypts-history-the-law-eradicates-civil-society-adversely-affects-t/?lang=en ↩
  3. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Legal Commentary on Regulations of NGO Law n.149 for 2019 on Civic Associations.” February 2021, Available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-legal-commentary-on-regulations-of-ngo-law-n-149-for-2019-on-civic-associations/?lang=en ↩
  4. Law 149/2019 on Civil Association, available at: https://manshurat.org/node/61248 ↩
  5. The Implementing Regulations of Law 149/2019 are available at: https://manshurat.org/node/70551. ↩
  6. Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, TIMEP Brief on Law 149 of 2019 (NGO Law), available at: https://timep.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NGOLaw20198.21.pdf ↩
  7. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, “Board Members of a Civic Association Excluded due to ‘security objection’” January 2024, available in Arabic at: https://bit.ly/3S1ZT7Z ↩
  8. Article 27 of Law 149/2019. ↩
  9. The text of the Penal Code is accessible through this link: https://manshurat.org/node/14677 ↩
  10. CIHRS, “Recent Decision on Case 173 Does not Mean that the Human Rights Crisis is Over,” March 2024, available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-recent-decision-on-case-173-does-not-mean-that-the-human-rights-crisis-is-over/?lang=en ↩
  11. For instance, see recommendations 31.136 and 31.203 of Egypt’s 3rd Cycle (2019) Matrix of Recommendations. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/eg-index. ↩
  12. Text of the amendments to Law 149/2015 could be accessed through this link https://manshurat.org/node/74570. ↩
  13. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Latest counterterrorism law encourages extrajudicial killing and cements impunity,” August 2015, available at: https://cihrs.org/latest-counterterrorism-law-encourages-extrajudicial-killing-andcements-impunity/?lang=en. ↩
  14. Rights groups demand release of Ibrahim Metwally and applaud international solidarity: https://cihrs.org/rights-groups-demand-release-of-ibrahim-metwally-and-applaud-international-solidarity/?lang=en ↩
  15. He was later charged with establishing an unlawful group and maintaining contacts with foreign bodies with the aim of harming the state. ↩
  16. Committee for Justice, “Cairo Terrorism Court Renews Detention of Human Rights Lawyer Ibrahim Metwally Despite Calls for his Release,” July 2013, available at: https://www.cfjustice.org/egypt-cairo-terrorism-court-renews-detention-of-human-rights-lawyer-ibrahim-metwally-despite-repeated-calls-for-his-release/ ↩
  17. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Egypt: Immediately Release Coptic Activist Ramy Kamel,” December 2019, available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-immediately-release-coptic-activist-ramy-kamel/?lang=en ↩
  18. Egyptian human rights lawyer Mohamed Ramadan was similarly arrested and faced terrorism-related charges under Case no. 16576/2018. Ramadan was arrested in December 2018 while attending an interrogation with a client. Although a court ordered his release two years later, the authorities added him to a new case to keep him in pretrial detention. He was ultimately released in July 2022, after spending four years in pretrial detention facing unfounded charges. See https://lawyersforlawyers.org/en/mohamed-ramadan-released-from-prison/ , Egyptian authorities arrested human rights lawyer Amr Imam in October 2019. Over the course of nearly three years of pretrial solitary detention, Imam faced several unfounded charges, including terrorism, before being released in July 2022. See https://www.peopleinneed.net/1-000-days-of-amr-imams-pretrial-detention-9217gp , In 2020, Patrick Zaki, a human rights researcher, was arrested in 2020 and initially faced the charge of disseminating false news and joining a terrorist group, following an article he wrote about discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt. He was convicted in 2023 but was released after receiving a presidential pardon. See https://cihrs.org/civil-society-organizations-condemn-sentencing-of-egyptian-academic-and-researcher-patrick-george-zaki/?lang=en. ↩
  19. Human Rights Watch, “Rights Defender’s Relatives Arrested,” June 2020, available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/24/egypt-rights-defenders-relatives-arrested. ↩
  20. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Detained Academic at Risk of Death,” May 2023, available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-detained-academic-at-risk-of-death/?lang=en. ↩
  21. Human Rights Watch, “Harsh Sentences Against Rights Activists,” March 2023, available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/08/egypt-harsh-sentences-against-rights-activists. ↩
  22. Amnesty International “Human Rights Defender Bahey eldin Hassan Handed Outrageous 15-year Prison Sentence,” August 2020, available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/08/egypt-human-rights-defender-bahey-eldin-hassan-handed-outrageous-15-year-prison-sentence/ ↩
  23. Amnesty International, “End Shocking Reprisal Campaign against Leading Egyptian Rights Group,” November 2020, available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/11/egypt-end-shocking-reprisal-campaign-against-leading-egyptian-rights-group/ ↩
  24. CIHRS, “Campaign against State’s Unlawful Use of Colonial-era Assembly Law Continues Despite Courtroom Defeat,” January 2020, available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-campaign-against-states-unlawful-use-of-colonial-era-assembly-law-continues-despite-courtroom-defeat/?lang=en ↩
  25. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, “Unjust Verdict Must not be Ratified Against Mohamed El-Baqer, Alaa Abdelfattah, and Mohamed Ibrahim.” ↩
  26. The text of the law could be accessed here: https://manshurat.org/node/57671. ↩
  27. The amended constitution could be accessed through this link: https://manshurat.org/node/14675. ↩
  28. CIHRS, “Rights Organizations Demand Investigation’s into the 167-day Disappearance and Torture of Ibrahim Ezz El-Din,” December 2019, available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-rights-organizations-demand-investigations-in-the-176-day-disappearance-and-torture-of-ibrahim-ezz-el-din/?lang=en. ↩
  29. ibid. ↩
  30. For more on the incident, see The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, “A New Police Attack Against ANHRI’s Director,” December 2019, available at: https://www.anhri.info/?p=13441&lang=en. ↩
  31. Human Rights Watch, “Prominent Rights Defender Attacked,” November 2019, available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/02/egypt-prominent-rights-defender-attacked. ↩
  32. The New Arab, “Human Rights Defender Gamal Eid says he was Subjected to Security Threats,” October 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3zEdps7. ↩
  33. Bahey eldin Hassan, Testimony before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs – Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism, September 2020, available at: https://cihrs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Hassan_Testimony.pdf. ↩
  34. International Federation for Human Rights, “Intimidation and Judicial Harassment of Ms. Aida Seif al Dawla,” October 2019, available at: https://www.fidh.org/en/issues/human-rights-defenders/egypt-intimidation-and-judicial-harassment-of-ms-aida-seif-al-dawla. ↩
  35. Mostafa al-Asar, “Via Samsung: Journalists Trapped in Egypt’s Security Machine,” Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, March 2024, available at: https://timep.org/2024/03/28/via-samsung-journalists-trapped-in-egypts-security-machine/. ↩
  36. CIHRS, “Human Rights Group and its Director Threatened and Smeared,” February 2024, available at: https://cihrs.org/egypt-human-rights-group-and-its-director-threatened-and-smearedreprisals-follow-reports-on-gaza-border-activity/?lang=en. ↩
  37. Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2023,” 2023, available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/egypt. ↩

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