Egypt: Release Dozens of Protestors Held Without Charge
Detainees Held for More Than 90 Days, Allegedly Tortured
Egypt should immediately release six men who have been detained for more than 90 days without charge since their arrests following a workers strike and street protests in Mahalla al-Kobra in April, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also called on authorities to suspend the prosecution of 49 others by a security court where procedures violate fair trial rights and to investigate allegations that some of the men were tortured.
July 18, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Obey Court, Recognize Labor Group
Judges Ruled Organization’s Closure Contrary to ‘Reality and Law’
Egyptian authorities should immediately remove all restrictions against a labor organization and comply with a court order to legally recognize the workers’ rights group, Human Rights Watch said today.
June 6, 2008 Press Release
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UN: Open AIDS Meeting to All
General Assembly Should Reverse Ban on Human Rights and Sexual Health Groups
The United Nations General Assembly should reverse its decision to exclude three human rights and sexual health nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from its June 10 high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS, a coalition of human rights groups and international AIDS organizations said today.
June 5, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Investigate Forcible Return of Refugees to Sudan
Deported Men and Boys May Face Persecution in Sudan
Egyptian authorities should investigate the forced return to Sudan of at least 11 Sudanese who were officially recognized as refugees and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said today. The forcible return (refoulement) of people to a country where they have a well-founded fear of persecution constitutes a breach of Egypt’s basic obligation under international refugee law.
May 30, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Court Upholds HIV Sentences, Reinforces Intolerance
Five Convictions in Fear-Driven Crackdown a Blow to Health and Justice
A Cairo appeals court’s decision to uphold the sentences imposed on five men jailed in a crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS underscores the Egyptian government’s dangerous indifference to public health and justice, Human Rights Watch said today. The May 28 ruling upheld the maximum three-year prison terms for each of the five, following a months-long campaign targeting men with HIV/AIDS. A total of nine men have been sentenced to prison so far.
May 29, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Extending State of Emergency Violates Rights
Repressive Law Renewed in Place of Promised Reforms
The Egyptian government’s abrupt extension by two years of the country’s decades-old state of emergency shows contempt for the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said today. Parliament rushed through the extension on May 26 with little debate and despite vociferous objections from the opposition and rights groups.
May 28, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Satellite Company Punished for Protest Footage
CNC Linked to Broadcast of Anti-Government Demonstrations
Egyptian authorities have enforced media licensing laws to punish a company associated with broadcasting information critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said today.
May 24, 2008 Press Release
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Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law
Testimony to the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law
Human Rights Watch believes that the internet is a transformative force that can help open closed societies and provide the near-instantaneous flow of information to inform the public, mobilize for change, and ultimately hold institutions accountable. In this testimony, Arvind Ganesan, Busines and Human Rights Program director, discusses some governments' restrictions on the internet, ongoing efforts for self-regulation, and prospects for government-led change to ensure respect for human rights.
May 20, 2008 Testimony
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Egypt: Investigate Beating of ‘Facebook’ Activist
Authorities Use Intimidation, Violence to Suppress Online Advocacy
Egyptian authorities should immediately investigate and prosecute those security officials responsible for beating Ahmed Maher Ibrahim, Human Rights Watch said today. Maher, a 27-year-old civil engineer, used the social-networking site Facebook to support calls for a general strike on May 4, 2008, President Hosni Mubarak’s 80th birthday.
May 10, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Military Court Convicts Opposition Leaders
Ruling Shows Government Contempt for Democratic Rights
A military tribunal’s conviction of 25 leading members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood demonstrates the Egyptian government’s continued determination to crush any organized political opposition, Human Rights Watch said today.
April 16, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Investigate Police Use of Force at Protests
Security Forces Arrest Pro-Democracy Movement Leader
Egypt should conduct an impartial investigation into the police use of force against protestors in the industrial city of Mahalla al-Kobra, Human Rights Watch said today. Reports suggest police may have used unnecessary lethal and excessive force in responding to widespread, sometimes violent demonstrations on April 6-7, 2008.
April 11, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: 117 NGOs Slam HIV-Based Arrests and Trials
Doctors Helping Police Denounced for Breaching Medical Ethics, Human Rights
As five more men face trial in Cairo on April 9 in a widening and dangerous police crackdown on people living with HIV/AIDS, 117 organizations worldwide working in the fields of health and human rights condemned the crackdown and the participation of medical personnel.
April 7, 2008 Press Release
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Letter Regarding Arrests and Prosecutions of People Living with HIV/AIDS
We are 117 human rights organizations based in 41 countries around the world, working in the fields of health and human rights. We write you urgently to voice concern over the arrest and trial of men in Egypt for alleged homosexual conduct, apparently based on men’s suspected HIV serostatus. We are concerned that medical personnel may have been complicit, or actively participated, in acts violating the international norm prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. We are further concerned that the Ministry’s involvement with the detention and interrogation of suspects in these cases condones or gives credit to myths about HIV/AIDS, in a way that is incompatible with the Ministry’s public health responsibilities and can only contribute to the epidemic’s spread.
April 7, 2008 Letter
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Egypt: Jailing 800 Activists Casts Doubt on Elections
Mass Arrests Include Would-Be Candidates; Military Court Delays Verdict
The Egyptian government’s continuing mass round-up of opposition activists and would-be candidates puts the legitimacy of upcoming local and municipal council elections in serious doubt, Human Rights Watch said today.
March 30, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: New Indictments in HIV Crackdown
Persecuting People Living With HIV/AIDS Feeds the Epidemic
The Egyptian government’s new indictments against several men arrested apparently on suspicion of having HIV violate their basic rights and deeply undermine Egypt’s fight against HIV/AIDS, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.
March 11, 2008 Press Release
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Letter to the Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference
Urging the Organisation to Improve and Strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism
Human Rights Watch writes to urge Dr. Ihsanoglu to use his position as Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to support measures at the upcoming Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Dakar, Senegal on March 13-14 that would improve and strengthen the 1999 OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism. In particular, we urge the OIC to consider two amendments to the Convention in order to narrow its overbroad definition of terrorism and to make absolutely clear that there is no sanction in Islam for deliberately attacking civilians, whatever the circumstances or justifications.
March 11, 2008 Letter
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Arab League: Reject Proposal to Restrict Satellite Broadcasts
Information Ministers’ New ‘Principles’ Would Extend Repression of Free Speech
Arab governments should publicly reject those elements of a proposed regional policy on satellite television broadcasting that would seriously restrict freedom of expression and information, Human Rights Watch said today.
February 26, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Spreading Crackdown on HIV Endangers Public Health
Rights Violations Drive Those in Need Underground
Cairo police arrested four more men suspected of having HIV, signaling a wider crackdown that endangers public health and violates basic human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today in a joint statement.
February 15, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: “Re-Conversion” Decision Is a Welcome Step
Government Should Protect Converts from Discrimination, Harassment
Today’s ruling by Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court allowing 12 Christian converts to Islam to “re-convert” back to Christianity is a welcomed rejection to the government’s policy of religious discrimination, Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said today. The two organizations urged the government to take immediate steps to correct its systematic policy of forcing converts from Islam to accept a religious identity that was not their own in order to obtain essential identification documents.
February 11, 2008 Press Release
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Egypt: Stop Criminalizing HIV
HIV-Motivated Arrests and Convictions Threaten Justice and Public Health
A series of arrests in Cairo sparked by one man’s admission to police that he was HIV-positive endangers public health as well as human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.
February 5, 2008 Press Release
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