This Week in Human Rights News

11 years after pro-democracy protests, Egypt’s government continues to target activists

Sources: Al-Monitor, Cultural Anthropology Journal, Britannica, Middle East Eye 1, 2, Al Jazeera, Amnesty International, Egypt Today 

It has been eleven years since people took to the street to protest the government in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt. The protest’s rallying cry was ‘Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice!’, as reported by Al-Monitor. 

The aftermath of the protests resulted in the transfer of power to Egypt’s military after President Mubārak stepped down. 

After many political processes, in 2013, a coup d’état placed current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in power. In the years following, human rights abuses and arbitrary activist detention have been recorded. 

Recently, in January 2022, activist Hossam Menoufi Mahmoud Sallam was removed by Egyptian authorities from a flight that emergency landed in Egypt, despite the flight being between Sudan and Turkey. 

Another event in January 2022 saw the release of Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath since his imprisonment in 2019. Shaath’s release was based on the condition that he renounce Egyptian citizenship. 

Upon release, he discussed the inhumane conditions of the jail cells and the presence of many fellow activists in prison. Al Jazeera noted that Shaath had a prominent role in the 2011 protests, and is the Egyptian coordinator for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel in the wake of Palestinian apartheid.

In September 2021, President el-Sisi announced the opening of the country’s ‘largest prison’ in an ‘American-style’. The goal, he noted, was to allow prisoners to ‘serve their sentences in a humane way’. Middle East Eye reported that nearly 1,100 detainees have died in prison since Sisi’s rise to power from various human rights abuses such as ‘medical negligence, mistreatment, or torture’. 

Human rights activists in Egypt can be kept safer with consistent press and media coverage. Ramy Shaath’s release, for example, was covered by international outlets like Al Jazeera, Reuters and France24. 

Providing a platform for activists to report on prison conditions and human rights abuses is crucial to countering instances of disappearances and inhumane treatment.