Civil society, elections and rights under restrictions
Deleted Lines | Issue 13 | November 2025
Civil society, elections and rights under restrictions
In the thirteenth issue of the Deleted Lines newsletter, we monitor developments in the rights and political landscape in Egypt during the past weeks, including controversial laws, the parliamentary elections, and campaigns of arrest and arbitrary detention, in addition to community mobilisation and rights initiatives to combat violence against women and protect fundamental freedoms. We also shed light on the conditions of journalists, workers and refugees, amid continued pressure on civil society organisations and increasing restrictions on the right to expression, movement and work, to provide a comprehensive picture of the rights and political challenges facing Egypt at the end of 2025.
1. Freedom of association and civil society
Amnesty International: The NGO Law Strangles Egyptian Civil Society
Amnesty International, in a new report, called on the Egyptian authorities to abolish the strict restrictions imposed by the NGO Law No. 149 of 2019, considering that these restrictions obstruct the right to freedom of association or to join associations, and threaten the future of civic space in the country.
The report, issued under the title “Whatever Security Says Gets Done”, explained that the current law grants the state and the security sector almost complete control over independent civil society organisations, through burdensome regulatory requirements, arbitrary security interventions, and constant surveillance of the activities of associations.
Sara Hashash, deputy director of the organisation’s Middle East and North Africa regional office, said that lifting the asset-freeze decisions and travel bans on some workers in associations last year is a positive step, but insufficient given the continued application of a “restrictive” law that is used, as she described it, to subject associations to surveillance and to practise intimidation. She added: “The authorities must amend the law in a way that allows a notification system instead of prior licensing, protects associations from National Security interference, and lifts unjustified restrictions on funding.”
The report indicated that the Central Unit for Associations and Civil Work at the Ministry of Social Solidarity imposes prior registration procedures that violate the constitution and international standards, enabling the authorities to reject or delay the registration of associations, interfere in the formation of their boards of directors, and place restrictions on their funding. The report also documented cases of intimidation by National Security personnel, including threatening calls, illegal summonses and coercive interrogations.
The report also addressed the financial restrictions imposed on associations, including the difficulty of opening bank accounts, delays of months in security approvals, and the requirement of obtaining prior approval to receive any foreign funding, which disrupts the ability of associations to carry out their activities and pay their employees’ salaries.
Amnesty pointed out that the campaigns of restriction on civil society escalated between 2011 and 2021, and included criminal investigations, asset freezes, travel bans, and arbitrary arrests. Although some aspects of this campaign receded between 2021 and 2024, and Case 173 concerning foreign funding was closed, the organisation believes that the current legislative framework still undermines the freedom of civil work in Egypt.
The organisation concluded its report by calling on the Egyptian authorities to align the NGO Law with their international obligations, and to guarantee the ability of independent organisations to work freely without fear of reprisal or security interference.
Rights Organisations Warn of the Deterioration of Human Rights in Egypt and Document the Escalation of "Punishment by Proxy" and the Targeting of Refugees
22 rights organisations issued a statement in which they called on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to take decisive steps regarding what they described as the continued deterioration of the human rights file in Egypt, noting that the African Commission had monitored clear violations of the articles of the African Charter without issuing any decisions on Egypt since 2015. The organisations criticised the government report submitted during the 85th session of the Commission in October 2025, considering that it presented a “misleading” picture of the rights situation, and also expressed their concern about the report of the country rapporteur for Egypt for relying heavily on the official narrative and ignoring widespread violations.
In another statement, the Refugees Platform in Egypt and international and local organisations warned of the escalation of what they called “punishment by proxy”, noting the documentation of 12 cases during 2024 and 2025 that included raids, arrests and enforced disappearances targeting the families of activists and journalists abroad.
Likewise, the platform’s director, Nour Khalil, revealed a wide security campaign against refugees and asylum seekers that included mass detentions because of colour or nationality, despite most of them being registered with the UN Refugee Agency. He explained that the release decisions issued in their favour are not implemented, and that some of them are deported to countries that may put their lives at risk, which has led to cases of family separation. He warned, in a post on his page, that the continuation of these policies, amid a confused asylum system and an absence of funding and services, portends a worsening of the crisis and pushes refugees towards extremely dangerous options, calling for urgent political intervention to stop these violations.
El-Sisi Ratifies the "Criminal Procedure" Law Despite Rights Rejection, and the Bar Association Prepares to Challenge It
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified the new Criminal Procedure Law No. 174 of 2025, after the House of Representatives approved most of the amendments to overcome the previous objections, and the law was published in the Official Gazette in November 2025. Parliament approved the controversial articles, including Article 105, which allows the questioning of the accused without the presence of a lawyer in some cases.
The rights and political controversy over the law continued, especially over Articles 48 and 105, as some considered the wording of Article 48 loose and infringing on the sanctity of homes, and Article 105 contrary to the constitution with regard to the right of defence and the presence of a lawyer. The Bar Association announced its intention to challenge the law before the Constitutional Court, demanding the withdrawal of the amendments before they take effect, considering that they fundamentally infringe on the right of defence and are marred by constitutional and legal violations.
Amr El-Khashab, a member of the Bar Association’s council, tells “Zawia3” that the Bar Association is heading towards challenging the Criminal Procedure Law before the Constitutional Court, in implementation of the decision of the head of the association. El-Khashab explains that the association is still appealing to the President of the Republic to withdraw the amendments before they take effect, given that they infringe on the right of defence and fundamentally undermine its guarantees. And that the association’s position also rests on the recent affirmations by the president of the existence of problems in the electoral process, which El-Khashab considers “evidence that the president listens to the pulse of the street and reconsiders decisions marred by violations of the constitution and the law”.
2. Elections and political participation
Rights Demands to Cancel the House of Representatives Elections After “Breaches” Were Proven
10 rights organisations accused the Egyptian authorities of emptying the 2025 House of Representatives elections of their democratic content, demanding the cancellation of the current electoral process, which they described as “entirely subject to the will of the president” amid the “absence of independence” of the National Election Authority. The organisations affirmed, in a joint statement, that the chaos that marred the process and the direct intervention of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi reflect the false nature of the electoral process, noting that any potential changes in the results will not go beyond a redistribution of seats among the security agencies and those loyal to the authorities without actual democratic representation.
The statement indicated that the National Election Authority cancelled the first phase in 19 electoral constituencies distributed across 7 governorates after the president’s directive to verify the violations that occurred in them; however, the presidential message did not constitute a shift towards guaranteeing fair elections, but rather confirmed the continued political and security dominance over the management of the electoral process, according to the organisations.
The organisations demanded the cancellation of the current electoral process and the reform of the legal, institutional and political structure to guarantee free and fair elections, considering that the second phase of the elections, which began last Monday and Tuesday at home and continued abroad and includes 13 governorates, reflected the continued management of the vote “inside closed rooms” through security decisions and presidential directives that deprive the process of any democratic credibility.
Wholesale Violations in the Second Phase and Continuing Legal and Political Controversy
Voters in Egypt cast their ballots last Monday and Tuesday in the second phase of the 2025 House of Representatives elections, which was held in 13 governorates, namely Cairo, Qalyubia, Dakahlia, Gharbia, Menoufia, Kafr El-Sheikh, Sharqia, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, South Sinai, and North Sinai. 1316 candidates competed in it under the individual system, in addition to a single list under the name “The National List for Egypt”, which includes a number of loyalist parties and parties of the available space (Egyptian Social Democratic – Al-Adl – Reform and Development).
Jihad Makhalif, the daughter of independent candidate Atef Makhalif in the Matariya constituency, recorded incidents of electoral bribes being distributed in front of one of the polling stations, without any intervention from the executive authorities or the police forces present around the polling stations, according to what she documented in clips circulated on social media.
According to eyewitnesses in a number of constituencies and governorates, vote-buying operations began in Port Said Governorate only about two hours after the polling stations opened. According to what was documented in videos and audio recordings that reached Zawia3, the price of a single vote in the first constituency of Port Said Governorate started at EGP 200 and reached EGP 500, in favour of the Homat Watan candidate Tamer El-Hamzawy. In addition, coupons for receiving food supplies were distributed for the independent candidate Mohamed Abu Taleb.
In the second constituency, eyewitnesses from electoral campaigns reported observing incidents of counterfeit sums of money in EGP 200 notes being distributed to voters, in an attempt to influence their choices. These incidents did not last long after the matter was exposed and the counterfeiting of the circulating money was discovered.
According to what Zawia3 documented, the Dar El-Salam and El-Basatin constituency recorded several electoral violations committed by Islam Kortam, the Conservative Party candidate, and his electoral campaign, including the use of political money, while Kortam allied himself with the candidates of the loyalist parties, foremost among them the Mostaqbal Watan candidate. This contradicts his party’s opposition position on alliances with loyalist parties, and it is the same thing that candidate Ehab El-Kholy did in the Imbaba constituency, where he presented himself as “the security candidate”, which prompted MP Nashwa El-Deeb to withdraw from the competition.
In the same context, candidate El-Husseiny Mohamed Ibrahim, known as El-Husseiny Abu Qamar, the secretary of the National Front Party in Port Said and running as an independent in the constituency, distributed sums of money to voters, and Zawia3 obtained video clips from the El-Salam and El-Nahda constituencies documenting the distribution of sums of money to voters after they were asked to present their identity cards, with the aim of influencing their vote in favour of the loyalist parties, especially the Homat Watan Party and the Republican People’s Party.
To read the full report: The Second Like the First: Cancelling 19 Constituencies Changed Nothing in the Electoral Scene
The Arrest of Candidates and Their Relatives: The Most Prominent Features of the Scene
The electoral scene this time was not free of scenes that observers described as “absurd”, in light of the National Election Authority’s prior pledges of its keenness to achieve the highest degree of integrity and transparency, after the controversy raised following the first round required the direct intervention of the President of the Republic, who demanded in a statement published on (Facebook) a review of the violations and the achievement of integrity, even if the Authority were forced to cancel the elections wholly or partially.
The most prominent incident was the detention of the coordinator of the Civil Democratic Movement and member of the presidential council of the Conservative Party, the candidate in the Suez constituency, Talaat Khalil, and his sister at a youth centre, and preventing him from following up on his activity, in explicit violation of the law, as he put it, following a discussion with the head of the electoral committee, who filed a police report against him and refused to register his complaint, according to what Khalil explained in a live broadcast on his official “Facebook” page. Hours after his detention, the Public Prosecution decided to release him and his sister at dawn.
For her part, Monica Magdy, a candidate for the Shubra, Rod El-Farag and Bulaq Abu El-Ela constituency, said that the first and second days of voting witnessed continuous restrictions on her and her family after she monitored what she described as “political money violations” carried out by one of the candidates, explaining that she documented through videos operations of distributing money and meals in front of the polling stations. She added that tension peaked when her sister was assaulted inside one of the schools and the phone of one of her campaign’s delegates was stolen, noting that she, her mother and her sister were taken to the Shubra police station to take legal measures, and that her mother and sister were detained for hours at the prosecution.
Recommended reading: What Was Not Officially Announced: Internal Messages Reveal the Role of the National Election Authority in the Chaos of the 2025 Elections
3. Prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders
A New Campaign Titled “Egypt Without Prisoners of Conscience”
A number of politicians and rights advocates announced the founding of the Committee for the Defence of Prisoners of Conscience (Egypt Without Prisoners of Conscience), with the aim of pressuring the judicial and executive authorities to release all prisoners of conscience and guarantee them fair trials, and to stop the phenomenon of recycling into new cases. The initiative is based on the constitutional rights guaranteeing freedom of expression in Egypt’s 2014 Constitution, amid the continued use of pretrial detention against citizens for exercising their right to opinion, publication and scientific research, which has led to the detention of thousands of people and affected their lives and their families.
The committee focuses on receiving reports of detention or enforced disappearance, providing legal support to prisoners of conscience, and guaranteeing their health and professional rights, in addition to issuing periodic reports and publishing media follow-ups of their conditions. The committee includes political parties, trade union forces, rights advocates, journalists and prisoners’ families.
Renewed Rights Demands to Release Lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim
Local and international rights organisations demanded the immediate release of Court of Cassation lawyer and former member of the National Council for Human Rights Hoda Abdel Moneim (66 years old), after more than seven years of legal prosecution and abuse on the basis of her work documenting human rights violations.
The organisations pointed out that Abdel Moneim is being tried for the third time on the same charges related to “joining a terrorist group and financing it” pending Case 800 of 2019, despite having served her entire previous sentence, affirming that Abdel Moneim’s health condition seriously deteriorated during the past year, after she suffered two successive heart attacks, and she suffers from chronic clots and a severe deterioration in kidney function that led to the left kidney stopping, in addition to other chronic illnesses.
Recommended reading: El-Sisi’s Ratification Is Not the End of the Road: A New Opportunity to Reject the “Criminal Procedure” Law
The Criminal Court Renews the Listing of Human Rights Lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer on Terrorism Lists
The First Circuit of the Criminal Court renewed the listing of human rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer on the terrorist lists for an additional five years, in its session of 18 November, at the request of the Public Prosecution. The decision comes after the end of the first listing period issued in 2020 by Circuit 28 South Cairo, headed by Counsellor Hassan Farid. El-Baqer had submitted on 23 November a request to the Public Prosecutor to lift the consequences of his previous listing. For its part, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights condemned the decision, which entails a travel ban, the cancellation of the passport or the non-issuance of a new passport, the freezing of funds, and the suspension of civil activities, in addition to deprivation of holding public office or practising certain professions, including law.
Five Years of Travel Bans and Asset Freezes Against Three Members of the Egyptian Initiative Without Response to the Requests Submitted
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that five years have passed with the continuation of the decisions banning travel and freezing funds and property against three of its former directors, Mohamed Basheer, Karim Ennarah, and Gasser Abdel Razek, measures that were imposed after a security campaign in November 2020 that saw the arrest of the three and their questioning about their rights work, and their accusation of joining a terrorist group and broadcasting false news. Despite the decision to release them in December of the same year pending Case 855 of 2020, the case has remained open since then without any additional investigations, while the punitive measures have remained in force without justification.
The Initiative explained that last year it submitted a grievance to the Supreme Judicial Council (No. 364) and a complaint to the Office of the Public Prosecutor to lift the restrictions and drop the charges, but it has not received any response or notification from either body throughout an entire year regarding the taking of any action on these requests.
Recommended reading: What Has Changed 4 Years After the Launch of the National Human Rights Strategy?
Demands to Reveal the Place of Detention of Poet Abdul Rahman Yusuf
The Egyptian Human Rights Forum renewed its call for the immediate disclosure of the place of detention of the poet and opposition figure Abdul Rahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who was arrested in Lebanon on 28 December 2024 and forcibly deported to the UAE on 8 January 2025, after more than 300 days of his disappearance. The Forum affirmed that his detention without communication with the outside world exposes him to the risk of torture and cruel treatment, and held the Lebanese authorities responsible for his illegal deportation, and the Emirati authorities responsible for his safety, demanding that he be allowed to communicate with his family and lawyers immediately.
4. Freedom of belief
The Security Campaign Against Nonreligious People Continues
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights documented the arrest of six new people among nonreligious people, atheists and holders of dissenting religious views from mid-October until the end of November, bringing the number of those detained pending Case No. 6954 of 2025 to about 20 people, accused of joining a group founded in violation of the law and publicly assaulting religious rites, in the context of a security wave targeting beliefs and opinions that are not officially recognised.
The Initiative also condemned the deprivation of these detainees of the right to exercise and of the necessary medical care, which threatens their physical and psychological health, affirming that these violations constitute a flagrant breach of the Egyptian constitution and of international conventions protecting freedom of religion, belief and opinion. It demanded that the authorities immediately release the detainees and guarantee respect for their fundamental rights.
5. Women’s rights, participation and justice
Challenges of Fair Representation of Women in the Egyptian Parliament
The foundations “Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance” and “Tadwein for Gender Studies” launched the campaign “She Legislates” to focus on strengthening women’s participation in political decision-making inside the Egyptian parliament. The joint statement explained that women’s representation in parliament has remained limited since they obtained the right to stand for election and to vote in 1956, as it witnessed fluctuation over the decades and major setbacks before the inclusion of a constitutional quota of 25% in 2019, which raised women’s representation to 27% in the 2020 parliament.
Dr Amal Fahmy, executive director of the “Tadwein” centre, points out that the campaign aims to support women’s participation in elections and shed light on the social and cultural obstacles that limit their chances in individual competition. Despite some limited legislative gains, such as draft personal status laws and laws on violence, she affirms in her conversation with us that the achievements were not at the level of expectations, and that cumulative work with women parliamentarians and civil society is necessary to strengthen the feminist agenda. She explains that the weak representation of women in the Senate and digital violence against women candidates reflect the persistence of patriarchal thinking inside parties and the public sphere, and directly affect Egypt’s ranking in global gender indices.
In a related context, 21 associations and civil foundations monitored, in a joint statement issued on 22 October, an alarming escalation in digital violence directed against women participating in electoral campaigns, especially through defamation campaigns targeting the private lives of women candidates to exclude them from the public sphere. The organisations warned that these violations constitute a direct breach of the sanctity of private life guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution in its Article (99), and also threaten women’s right to political participation and undermine the gains that Egyptian women have achieved during the past years.
Gender-Based Violence in Egypt: Feminist Campaigns and Efforts for Justice During the 16 Days Activities
Civil society organisations and official bodies in Egypt, in cooperation with the United Nations, are taking part in the campaign of 16 days against gender-based violence, extending from 25 November to 10 December. In this context, the initiatives “Sawt – Aoun – Genderist – Ya’ Al-Milkiya – Kaheela” launched the campaign “A Word That Hurts”, which sheds light on the roots of hate speech and its impact on justifying exclusion and violence against women. The initiative’s statement affirmed that hate speech is not limited to insults and bullying, but includes every expression that diminishes women’s humanity or questions their abilities, whether in popular proverbs, the media or the digital space.
Rights and feminist groups also issued a joint statement in which they condemned the escalation of violence on the basis of sex, including harassment, killing, and sexual assaults, in addition to the expansion of digital violence, supported by the absence of clear legislation and the weak accountability of platforms. The statement considered these violations “crimes against humanity”, denouncing the crimes of violence in Sudan, and calling for the issuance of a unified law to combat violence against women, and the activation of the Anti-Discrimination Commission.
495 Crimes Against Women in Six Months
The semi-annual report of the “Idraak” Observatory for Development and Equality showed a sharp escalation in violence against women and girls in Egypt during the first half of 2025, recording 495 crimes ranging from killing, sexual assault and harassment to domestic and digital violence. The same period witnessed 156 killings of women and girls, most of them committed within the family, which reflects the persistence of domestic violence as the most egregious and widespread form.
The observatory also monitored 122 incidents of sexual harassment, and 62 sexual assaults on children, including cases of rape of female minors and people with disabilities, in addition to incidents committed by teachers and relatives, which are indicators, according to the foundation, of serious gaps in institutional and legislative protection. The report affirmed the growth of digital violence, especially electronic blackmail crimes, in addition to the recording of cases of suicide linked to chronic domestic violence and economic pressures.
The foundation warned of the recurrence of incidents of sexual assault inside major educational institutions, the most prominent of which was an incident of the rape of children aged between 4 and 6 years inside an international school, considering that the absence of protection policies and of oversight of staff opens the door to widespread violations, which requires strict measures including criminal background checks, mandatory training, and preventing any child from being alone in an unmonitored place.
Likewise, 12 feminist initiatives issued a joint report on women’s experiences with the systems of reporting, investigation and litigation, which concluded that there is a legislative vacuum, a high economic cost of access to justice, a lack of data, and obstacles to proving violations. The organisations demanded the adoption of a unified law to combat violence against women, the provision of accessible psychological and legal support services, and the establishment of an effective referral system between state institutions and civil society.
Digital Violence and the Challenges of Justice… the “Justice, Not Mercy” and “Justice Has Many Faces” Initiatives
11 rights and feminist organisations launched the campaign “Justice, Not Mercy” to focus on five basic articles in the Penal Code that are considered, according to the women running it, a pillar of impunity in crimes of domestic violence, among them Articles 7, 17, 60, 237 and 274. The organisations explained that the crime of the killing of Amany El-Saeed comes within a series of crimes that end with lenient sentences in which these articles are exploited, which reveals, according to the statement, “a legal philosophy that legitimises violence within the family”.
In parallel, the New Woman Foundation launched the campaign “Justice Has Many Faces”, which links the growth of violence against women to the multiplicity of patterns of justice in society. Executive director Nevine Ebeid explains to “Zawia3” that: “These rulings are contributed to by a set of legal articles that give the judge wide room for mitigation. The main aim of the campaign is not limited to exposing the reasons for lenient sentences, but to push towards changing legislation in a way that reduces impunity.” Ebeid stresses that one of the core problems lies in Article 18 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which allows reconciliation in cases that include violence against women, exposing survivors to intense pressure to drop their complaints.
Nevine Ebeid explains that the “Justice in Reporting” and “Swift Justice” campaigns revealed structural obstacles that prevent women from resorting to the courts, among them the failure to act on thousands of violence reports at police stations “unless the case is raised on social media”, high court fees, and the weak efficiency of electronic platforms. She adds: “Some survivors receive direct messages from inside the police facility urging them to drop their complaints, and this reflects a clear disparity in women’s ability to access justice.”
Recommended reading: Three Oversight Bodies and Zero Protection: The Equation of Workers’ Deaths in Egyptian Factories
6. Press freedom and journalists’ rights
Cartoonist Ashraf Omar Referred to the Criminal Court
The Egyptian authorities referred, on Saturday 22 November 2025, cartoonist and translator Ashraf Omar to the Criminal Court, about a year and a half after his arrest, on the basis of the accusation of “participating with a terrorist group in achieving its aims”, according to what his lawyer Khaled Ali told local media. His wife Nada Mogheeth said that she learned of the referral decision by chance during her visit to him in the Tenth of Ramadan prison, noting that he was transferred on 18 November from his place of detention to the prosecution headquarters in New Cairo without prior notification to him or his lawyer.
Security forces had arrested Omar in July of last year, and he was forcibly disappeared for more than two days before appearing before the State Security Prosecution, which charged him with “spreading false news”, “misusing social media”, and “joining a group founded in violation of the law”, without presenting clear evidence supporting these charges. Earlier in November, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights condemned his continued pretrial detention, after the decision of the council chamber at the Badr Security Complex to extend his detention for an additional 45 days.
13 United Nations special rapporteurs had expressed last September “grave concern” over Omar’s continued detention, demanding his immediate release, and affirming that the criminalisation of political expression in Egypt under the pretext of national security and counter-terrorism represents “a deeply worrying practice”.
A Sit-in Inside Al-Bawaba News to Apply the Minimum Wage
A number of journalists of the newspaper “Al-Bawaba News” announced their sit-in in protest at the decision of the editor-in-chief, Abdel Rahim Ali, to close and liquidate the institution following their demands to apply the minimum wage, considering that the closure represents a circumvention of their rights and accumulated financial dues, and once again sheds light on the practices some employers resort to in order to avoid their obligations towards workers. The journalists affirmed that such measures threaten job security and distort the labour market, especially in the absence of a provision preventing the reopening of a similar activity before proving the payment of previous dues.
The Egyptian Commission for Human Rights announced its full solidarity with the journalists staging the sit-in, affirming that their financial and legal rights must be fully respected, and that any action by the newspaper’s management must comply with the legal framework for protecting workers. The Commission also called for ensuring that these practices are not repeated, and for preventing any new commercial activity from appearing before all the rights of former workers are settled, in a way that preserves economic justice and ensures that employers comply with the law.
Deterioration of the Condition of Journalist Saad Khattab in Detention
The health condition of the journalist and writer Mohamed Saad Khattab has sharply deteriorated, which prevented him from attending the last two detention renewal sessions because of severe exhaustion, as he suffers from diabetes, which has led to the loss of his teeth and deprived him of the ability to eat, in addition to other chronic illnesses affecting the heart, blood pressure and the immune system. Although his family and lawyers requested that he be examined by a dentist at his own expense, this request has not been met until now, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
Khattab is 73 years old, and has been held in pretrial detention since August 2023 pending Case No. 2063 of 2023 State Security, exceeding the maximum period of pretrial detention stipulated in the law. He is accused of joining a terrorist group, spreading false news and misusing social media.
7. Workers’ rights, wages and health insurance
Strike by Workers of “Arab Polvara” and a Warning Against Ignoring Rights
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms issued a statement on the health insurance crisis and the strike by workers of the Arab Polvara Spinning and Weaving Company in Alexandria, in which it pointed out that the workers resorted to a limited strike after more than forty days of waiting without any effective intervention by the management to restore medical services, despite the promises of the chairman of the board of directors to resolve the crisis before the end of the year. The Commission explained that what was implemented was incomplete, as it was limited to dispensing a single strip of each medicine, and the management also did not apply the new minimum wage of EGP 7,000, ignoring the wage scale stipulated in the law and international agreements, which reflects the continued deterioration of working conditions in the company amid the neglect of the health and social care of the workers, whose number has today shrunk to only about 1200 workers, amid attempts at gradual liquidation of the company under the pretext of financial distress.
The Commission demanded that the management immediately resume medical services and settle health insurance debts, while appealing to the National Organisation for Social Insurance to take into account the humanitarian and social dimension, and for the Ministry of Manpower to intervene to ensure the application of the new minimum wage and the job scale, and to protect the right to independent trade union organisation without any pressure on the workers.
Political and Trade Union Solidarity with Drinking Water Workers to Apply the Minimum Wage
A number of political parties, trade union committees and rights organisations issued a joint statement in which they expressed their full solidarity with the demands of the workers and employees of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Company in the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Sharqia, Beni Suef and Minya, who staged protest stands to demand their legitimate rights, including the application of the minimum wage, the payment of bonuses overdue since 2016, and the making permanent of temporary workers.
The statement demanded that the Ministry of Housing intervene urgently to consider the workers’ demands, and that the Ministry of Labour review the company’s commitment to applying the minimum wage and protecting employees’ rights. The statement was signed by political parties and rights and trade union bodies.
The Management of “MAFCO Helwan” Ignores Workers’ Rights and Prevents the Application of the Minimum Wage
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms condemned the repeated violations against workers of the “MAFCO Helwan” furniture company, consisting of the management’s refusal to implement the minimum wage decision issued by the President of the Republic, despite its being mandatory for all private sector establishments. The statement explained that about 400 workers submitted official complaints to the labour office during the current month, but the procedures were marked by delay, as the court session was set after 66 days, amid the continued exposure of workers to threats, investigations and deductions of days from their wages, amid difficult living conditions and wages that do not cover the minimum cost of living, despite their long years of experience. The Commission affirmed its full support for the workers and their legitimate demands, demanding that the Ministry of Manpower intervene immediately to oblige the company to implement the minimum wage and pay the dues, review the 2011 collective agreement and activate its provisions, investigate violations of occupational safety and work injuries, and activate urgent labour judiciary mechanisms to guarantee the speedy settlement of disputes.
