Outcome Report >> Egypt, Comment, 34th Session, November 2019

The Right Livelihood Award Foundation welcomed the recommendations received by Egypt to end abusive practices, such as arbitrary arrests, judicial harassment, and sexual violence-related crimes. It was concerned that Egypt labelled several recommendations related to the criminalization of civil society actors and human rights defenders as “factually incorrect”. On the contrary, violations against them remained the norm, and the authorities regularly attacked freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly. Six months ago, over 4000 protesters were arrested for peacefully demonstrating against corruption. It was concerned at targeting of leading women rights defenders and feminist activists, and punitive, reprisal-intentioned policies against icons of the feminist movement, including the co-founder of Nazra for Feminist Studies who was prosecuted under the infamous case 173/2011. It urged the Government to take effective measures to guarantee a free and active civil society by closing the “NGO Foreign Funding” case. [Para 865]