Against Violence and Torture

The undersigned human rights organizations call for the immediate release of Alaa Abdel Fattah, a pro-democracy activist who is appealing his five-year prison sentence on Thursday, October 19th at the Court of Cassation. Following a trial replete with legal violations while devoid of due process guarantees, Alaa was sentenced using the colonial-era Assembly Law (no. 10/1914), unanimously repealed by the Egyptian Parliament 89 years ago. The continued enforcement of the Assembly Law to imprison Alaa and thousands of others…

On the 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty, eight Egyptian rights groups demanded that the Egyptian adhere to the safeguards guaranteeing the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty and sign and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims to abolish the death penalty. Last year, the same groups demanded the government to suspend the implementation of the death penalty, at least temporarily, “given the recent record of human rights abuses,…

The signatory human rights organizations urge UNESCO to reject the candidacy of Moushira Khattab, a nominee for its Director- General post to be selected though election this coming Monday October 9th at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, ten organizations are urging Egyptian authorities to drop the preventative detention order against Hanan Badr el-Din, a human rights defender and co-founder of the “Association of the Families of the Disappeared” group.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) is alarmed at the Egyptian government’s attempt to intimidate ECRF by a surprise visit aiming at closing ECRF’s office in Cairo.