Read Zawia3\u2019s report: The New Education Law: How Free Education Is Eroded in Egypt<\/a><\/p>\n Parliamentary approval drew extensive civil society criticism as a fundamental shift in state responsibility for housing.<\/p>\n The New Woman Foundation said the law goes beyond landlord-tenant liberalisation to state withdrawal from protection amid dismantled welfare and subsidies. Stable low-income housing is threatened, especially for divorced, widowed, older and breadwinning women.<\/p>\n Its statement<\/a> warned of forced redistribution affecting over six million people, moving stable residents into insecurity or unfair contracts amid rising rental and ownership prices. Critics see housing commodification and reproduced poverty, especially among women.<\/p>\n The Cairo Foundation for Development and Law rejected a law endangering low-income tenants, women breadwinners, older people and families relying on rent protections, increasing costs and risking loss of homes.<\/p>\n Its statement<\/a> said approval does not waive fair demands. It sought social housing support, effective protection from arbitrary eviction and fair sustainable alternatives, rejecting bargaining away housing rights and urging reform for justice and dignity.<\/p>\n Housing researcher Yahia Shawkat called the law unfair and warned of a new crisis for hundreds of thousands of families, echoing opposition, rights groups and experts.<\/p>\n He told Zawia3<\/a> it exceeds the Supreme Constitutional Court ruling permitting gradual rent rises without undermining stability. Eviction to alternatives unsuitable for finances or psychological needs risks homelessness and impoverishment.<\/p>\n A win-win solution would redirect alternative housing construction funds into subsidies for unaffordable higher rents, preserving homes and fairly compensating landlords, as many owners themselves requested.<\/p>\n He also warned of disruption and disappearance of small commercial and social activities central to older and working-class neighbourhoods, reshaping their social composition.<\/p>\n Privatisation of Dar El-Salam Oncology Hospital, formerly Hermel, through management by Elevate Private Equity with France\u2019s Gustave Roussy institute prompted complaints of declining service, shortages and children\u2019s deaths.<\/p>\n Zawia3 testimonies said new paediatric admissions stopped, with neglect and mistreatment complaints including Yassin Nabil\u2019s death after disrupted treatment and deaths of Yasmine, Nour and Amal. Families described expensive black-market medicine after pharmacy supplies stopped and bureaucracy blocking treatment.<\/p>\n Patients alleged unfair conditions for essential drugs and rejection of old treatment approvals. Women reported verbal abuse and threats after complaints, amid calls for a protest against new management.<\/p>\n The Health Ministry acknowledged complaints. Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar announced a complaints unit and faster authorisations. Gustave Roussy\u2013Egypt denied stopping services and claimed expanded hours and rapid achievements without concrete remedies for reported crises.<\/p>\n Rights defenders including Right to Medicine Centre head Mahmoud Fouad warned that privatisation sacrifices constitutional treatment rights to profit.<\/p>\n He said the publicly funded hospital served all cancer types, not only breast cancer as government claimed, and had marrow transplant and cardiac units. He opposed privatisation under any pretext and warned of a health catastrophe if eighteen more public hospitals followed.<\/p>\n MPs including Freddy El-Bayady criticised threats to equitable healthcare for the neediest.<\/p>\n Read the report: Gustave Roussy after Privatisation: Less Medicine, More Pain<\/a><\/p>\n Zawia3\u2019s July investigation, \u201cThe Methadone Crisis: Why Is Ketamine Appearing in Harm Reduction Patients\u2019 Blood?<\/a>,\u201d exposed a health and ethical crisis over reduced methadone doses, abrupt substitution with an unapproved domestic drug, questionable tests and opaque decisions without scientific grounds.<\/p>\n Patients faced relapse and programme expulsion without oversight or remedies, requiring urgent medical and rights intervention to preserve treatment respecting life and dignity.<\/p>\n The Health Ministry and Mental Health Secretariat launched initial harm reduction addiction units in March 2023 using methadone as a safe opioid substitute.<\/p>\n Hope faded in spring 2025 amid shortages and substitution with a domestically made alternative lacking international approval, causing mass relapse, exclusions and alleged medical and ethical breaches.<\/p>\n Mass urine tests positive for ketamine despite universal denials raised suspicion. Patient Mazen questioned how two hundred tests could simultaneously show one drug due to defective strips, which he believed would produce varied results.<\/p>\n Patients said the solution changed from clear or pale yellow to blue, questioning composition.<\/p>\n Those positive only for ketamine remained; others positive for additional drugs were expelled without considering relapse or withdrawal after the medicine change.<\/p>\n Some returned when imported methadone arrived, but at uniform very low daily doses of 1\u20133 cubic centimetres that patients described as ineffective.<\/p>\n An emergency report to UNODC Vienna, obtained by Zawia3, documented unapproved substitution, dose reductions without clinical assessment, exclusions without warning and denial despite relapse being common, plus universal ketamine positives raising questions about the medicine.<\/p>\n It said imported methadone suddenly expired without notice or contingency, leaving thousands untreated. The returned drug differed and doses lacked clinical flexibility.<\/p>\n It held former UNODC executive director Ghada Waly responsible for inadequate oversight, noting her praise at the 68th Commission on Narcotic Drugs on 14 March 2025, two weeks before collapse.<\/p>\n On 21 July 2025, the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights issued \u201cIn the Depths of the Pit: Untold Stories of Civilians Swallowed by Secret Detention Centres in Sinai,\u201d<\/a> documenting 82 ongoing disappearances in a systematic pattern unacknowledged officially amid North Sinai security operations.<\/p>\n Families described disappearance after checkpoints or home raids, some over ten years without information. Most followed arrests by army or National Security forces without prosecution appearances or family contact.<\/p>\n North Sinai is highly restricted for information, with severe limits on journalists and rights organisations, obstructing documentation and independent review.<\/p>\n The foundation used family interviews, National Council for Human Rights complaints, local publications and unofficial documents. Actual numbers may be much higher: local estimates suggest 3,000\u20133,500 disappearances over two decades, none officially acknowledged.<\/p>\n One father received unofficial information that his son remained alive in a military facility but could not locate or contact him. Families also found names in unofficial civil society missing-person lists while authorities denied detention.<\/p>\n The report links current patterns to security campaigns after the 2004 Taba bombings, when thousands were arrested and some held long without trial, entrenching unlawful detention, undisclosed facilities and denial of families\u2019 right to know.<\/p>\n Counterterrorism, particularly after Wilayat Sinai\u2019s expansion, brought escalation directly affecting civilians facing harsh measures without adequate safeguards.<\/p>\n Recommendations include immediate release of detainees not referred to courts or sentenced, official lists of detainees and disappeared people, family and counsel contact, independent investigations involving judicial bodies or specialist UN missions.<\/p>\n It stressed access for local and international rights organisations with protection from security pressure as essential to transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n Authorities issued no comment on figures or testimonies. The state generally invokes national security to restrict Sinai information and repeatedly denies disappearance, claiming reports lack detail or formal documented complaints.<\/p>\n The report highlights difficulty obtaining accurate data in a closed security environment. Fear prevents formal complaints because of retaliation or threats. Figures capture only part of the picture without independent monitoring.<\/p>\n Authors said continued disappearance amid extensive operations raises questions about international commitments, citing the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.<\/p>\n It continues the foundation\u2019s previous documentation of arbitrary detention, forced displacement and excessive force without an independent official investigation mechanism.<\/p>\n Demolitions continue in El-Reesa, North Sinai, for El-Arish port development, displacing hundreds without notice amid inadequate compensation and absent suitable housing.<\/p>\n Presidential Decree No. 330 of 2019 classified the port and surroundings as public benefit and transferred authority to the armed forces. Decree No. 465 of 2021 reallocated 541 feddans to them.<\/p>\n Early on Tuesday, 29 July, dozens gathered at Battalion 101 demanding release of at least eight relatives arrested by police and National Security the previous evening and held at El-Arish Second Police Station.<\/p>\n The Sinai Foundation quoted witnesses saying arrests followed a vehicle procession against displacement and demolition. Its videos<\/a> showed women, children and other residents seeking releases and a halt to demolition, chanting that however much was taken, they would not leave their homes.<\/p>\n The foundation\u2019s statement<\/a> expressed concern over security escalation, calling demolition without dignified alternatives a flagrant housing violation and demanding release, suspended demolition, consultation and fair compensation.<\/p>\n Residents with legal contracts and title deeds told Zawia3 of sudden demolition without adequate evacuation time or transparent payments. Some left without agreed compensation or alternatives.<\/p>\n MP Rahmy Bekir expressed solidarity, saying compensation cannot build replacement homes. He urged compliance with Expropriation Law No. 10 of 1990, requiring fair payment before demolition, and fulfilment of alternative housing promises.<\/p>\n He said square-metre valuations began at EGP 1,200 then reached EGP 3,500, compared with true current prices of EGP 8,000\u20139,000.<\/p>\n Foundation documentation officer Eman Gad called demolitions catastrophic without alternatives or fair payment before removal, or guarantees afterwards. There was no meaningful consultation or dignity: a previous committee agreed compensation with residents, but agreements went unimplemented and a new committee appeared when demolition began.<\/p>\n She said removals violate procedural justice and safe, stable housing under international instruments, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, signed by Egypt in 1967.<\/p>\n She explained forced displacement as relocation without free informed consent or fair safe alternatives. Security pressure, no ready housing and no actual compensation enabling dignity place port-area removals within prohibited forced displacement under international humanitarian and human rights law.<\/p>\n Gad told Zawia3 residents\u2019 demands are entirely legitimate: money sufficient for replacement homes or equivalent property. Constitutional and international rights guarantee no removal without clear legal and humanitarian safeguards, especially in North Sinai\u2019s exceptional conditions.<\/p>\n After demolitions halted in 2023 following court action seeking delay until fair alternatives, she said authorities did not seek actual solutions or involve residents in planning.<\/p>\n Resolution begins with recognition of housing and participation rights. She proposed immediate suspension, comprehensive dialogue and an independent committee of residents, civil society and local authorities to assess conditions, transparent compensation and suitable homes before eviction rather than promises.<\/p>\n Amnesty researcher Mahmoud Shalaby saw the events as a recurring pattern of excluding community participation and securitising development at residents\u2019 expense.<\/p>\n He told Zawia3 international standards require meaningful consultation before removal. If development cannot proceed otherwise, residents must have adequate advance notice to arrange their lives.<\/p>\n Fair compensation should reflect economic conditions, be agreed with residents and account for place-dependent work and income such as farming or fishing.<\/p>\n Read Zawia3\u2019s report: Development Bulldozers Enter El-Reesa in El-Arish<\/a><\/p>\n Twenty-four local, regional and international rights organisations<\/a> demanded concrete human rights, governance and social justice conditions for the proposed EU financial package. Their 1 July 2025 statement preceded negotiations on the economic assistance memorandum.<\/p>\n They urged no new funding without measurable commitments and real review, warning that large unconditional support could entrench existing policy instead of reform.<\/p>\n They cited European macro-financial assistance Article 2(1), linking support to credible progress on democratic mechanisms, rule of law and human rights. They said the draft lacked real commitments, independent periodic review or disbursement-performance links.<\/p>\n Absent accountability risks unconditional support for a government repeatedly criticised internationally for undermining freedoms, civic space and justice institutions.<\/p>\n The statement identified structural fiscal priorities, citing official 2023\u20132024 education spending at 1.72% of GDP against a constitutional 6%, and health at 1.17% against 3%. Takaful and Karama fails basic needs in coverage and support compared with the poverty line.<\/p>\n External support without adequate social allocations deepens inequality and weakens balanced development amid poverty and eroding institutional protections.<\/p>\n Proposed agreement terms include a transparent, public annual joint EU-Egypt assessment of reform progress.<\/p>\n They sought civil society and relevant UN participation for independent assessment, quantitative indicators of social expenditure, conditions for rights work and expression and association freedoms.<\/p>\n Funding should arrive in stages linked to progress rather than a single transfer without performance conditions.<\/p>\n These demands arise as EU memoranda with North African states prioritise migration and energy security, often at rights\u2019 expense. Similar Tunisian and Moroccan agreements faced European Parliament criticism for opacity and weak independent oversight.<\/p>\n Egypt\u2019s proposed package exceeds EUR four billion, among the region\u2019s largest. Organisations say neglect of rights and social issues undermines EU credibility and misses an opportunity for financial tools to secure structural reform and long-term stability rather than exclusionary unaccountable government.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, 2 July 2025, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Egypt\u2019s final UPR report. The government representative announced acceptance of 281 of 343 recommendations and said 45 were already implemented.<\/p>\n EIPR director Hossam Bahgat called the official narrative a parallel reality contrasting with actual practices.<\/p>\n At the 28 January review, 137 states made over 370 recommendations, merged to 343 where repetitive or similar.<\/p>\n Issues included torture, recycled detention, arbitrary arrests, disappearance, restrictive criminal procedure, NGO and asylum laws, violations against journalists and defenders, restrictions on women and declining social expenditure.<\/p>\n Recommended reading: How Did Egypt\u2019s Government Respond to the Universal Periodic Review Recommendations?<\/a><\/p>\n The US announced sanctions<\/a> on Francesca Albanese in response to efforts to encourage ICC action, an arms embargo and cessation of trade with Israel, and her Human Rights Council presentation seeking investigation of officials at more than sixty major companies for rights violations and war crimes, arguing genocide continues because it is profitable.<\/p>\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused her of a malicious unlawful campaign against the US and Israel, exploiting international mechanisms against US sovereignty.<\/p>\n Albanese affirmed continued duties under council resolutions and international law, documenting violations and amplifying victims without yielding to political pressure.<\/p>\n Sanctioning an officially mandated UN rapporteur is an unusual development creating a dangerous precedent in major powers\u2019 engagement with mandate holders.<\/p>\n On 27 July, the Egyptian Red Crescent launched \u201cProvisions of Dignity: From Egypt to Gaza\u201d through Kerem Shalom towards southern Gaza: over one hundred trucks carrying more than 1,200 tonnes, including around 840 tonnes of flour and 450 tonnes of food baskets.<\/p>\n It said it had remained at the border since the crisis began and Rafah had never closed on Egypt\u2019s side. With 35,000 volunteers, it reported more than 35,000 trucks and 500,000 tonnes of food, water, medicine, relief and shelter materials, hygiene supplies, infant formula and nappies, plus ambulances and fuel trucks.<\/p>\n The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms\u2019 \u201cNo Statute of Limitations\u2014Torture Map\u201d campaign issued its annual report, \u201cDocumentation Prohibited and Litigation Obstructed: Systematic Complicity Entrenches Impunity for Torture,\u201d covering January 2024\u2013June 2025.<\/p>\n The report<\/a> examines torture and ill-treatment amid closed political and security conditions obstructing documentation and accountability. Justice remains absent despite death-under-torture reports, concealed evidence, threatened witnesses and misleading official accounts.<\/p>\n It documented 75 cases, 50.6% in 2024 and 49.3% in early 2025, indicating a nearly constant pace without serious reduction.<\/p>\n Ninety-one percent occurred in official prisons or police stations, placing direct legal responsibility on security and oversight authorities. Reporting and litigation remain almost paralysed through legal and institutional obstacles, requiring comprehensive criminal justice reform and effective legal support.<\/p>\n It sought unrestricted legislative definition and criminalisation of torture, binding prompt prosecution investigations, judicial oversight including National Security facilities, free legal assistance and easier litigation, compliance with the Convention against Torture and accession to its Optional Protocol, expanded civil society documentation and strategic litigation, and publicising successes to build confidence.<\/p>\n Political prisoners\u2019 families also issued a broad humanitarian appeal for public, civic, union and rights support for immediate unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, warning against silence over injustice continuing for more than a decade.<\/p>\n Egyptian courts sentenced 269 defendants in 194 cases to death, including seventeen final unappealable sentences, according to EIPR.<\/p>\n Its statistical report<\/a> recorded referral of 197 defendants in 137 cases to the Mufti ahead of death sentencing and three executions during the period.<\/p>\n These are minimum figures established through families and media, amid absent official transparency about sentences and executions.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, 30 July, the Official Gazette published Cairo Criminal Court\u2019s removal decision after accepting an appeal against listing under the Terrorist Entities Law. The First Terrorism Circuit, chaired by Judge Mohamed Saeed El-Sherbiny, ended related travel bans, asset freezes and public-life restrictions.<\/p>\n Defence lawyer Khaled Ali said publication made the decision effective.<\/p>\n His family, particularly academic mother Laila Soueif and sisters Mona and Sanaa Seif, pursued the appeal for years, describing the listing as arbitrary. The team navigated complex stages and continued submitting arguments until judgment.<\/p>\n The original decision alleged membership of an unlawfully established group, repeatedly denied by lawyers citing insufficient evidence.<\/p>\n On Tuesday evening, prosecutors released activist and poet Ahmed Douma on EGP 50,000 bail after more than five hours\u2019 questioning over a State Security inquiry alleging false news, disturbed public peace, public fear and questioning state institutions.<\/p>\n Douma\u2019s Facebook post<\/a> said this was the third incident in recent months, based on four posts. He called the report farcical and said prosecutors refused his request to remove or reduce unaffordable bail.<\/p>\n The summons continues restrictions on political activists amid increasing criticism of expression violations and social-media prosecutions.<\/p>\n State Security Prosecution ordered Ayman Essam\u2019s release around an hour after parliament approved old-rent amendments on 2 July 2025.<\/p>\n Arrested in Alexandria on Thursday, 19 June, he was travelling to a Tenants\u2019 Defence Association conference at the Socialist Popular Alliance Party.<\/p>\n He disappeared for two days before New Cairo State Security appearance on 21 June, receiving fourteen days\u2019 detention for allegedly joining a terrorist group and publishing false news. Sudden release days later was seen by observers as directly connected to the contested amendments\u2019 passage.<\/p>\n EIPR renewed demands to release translator Marwa Arafa, 32, whose trial began Sunday, 6 July, after over five years.<\/p>\n She appeared personally in Supreme State Security Case No. 570 of 2020 before Judge Mohamed El-Sherbiny\u2019s First Terrorism Circuit. The court rejected release despite exceeded legal limits and adjourned to 18 October to let defence examine case papers for the first time.<\/p>\n Security forces raided her home on 20 April 2020 and held her at an unknown location. Two weeks later prosecutors charged joining a terrorist group and a financing offence. Family disappearance complaints were not investigated.<\/p>\n EIPR\u2019s statement<\/a> said only one questioning session occurred on initial appearance, with automatic renewals for five years without actual investigation, gravely breaching procedural and constitutional law. Trial referral followed unjustified detention without any conviction.<\/p>\n Seventeen international and Egyptian groups issued a joint statement<\/a> on Friday, 11 July, expressing deep concern about academic Salah Soltan in Badr 1, seeking release and urgent care against possible sudden death from deliberate neglect.<\/p>\n They criticised systematic targeting of his family over rights work, citing the preceding month\u2019s in-absentia life sentence for US-based son Mohamed Soltan, who relinquished Egyptian citizenship around ten years earlier as a condition of release and deportation as an American.<\/p>\n Salah was arrested in September 2013 and sentenced to life in the Al-Fath Mosque case and five years in the Rabaa Operations Room case on allegations of incitement, terrorist membership, planned chaos and false information.<\/p>\n A US permanent resident, he lost consciousness in solitary confinement on 18 June and underwent prison-centre MRI. Family said no diagnosis or follow-up followed despite doctors\u2019 concerns about stroke or brain bleeding.<\/p>\n Organisations linked his treatment to Case No. 1766 of 2022, producing his son\u2019s June 2025 life sentence, describing retaliation for advocacy and efforts to free his father.<\/p>\n EIPR demanded release after more than 1,900 days of pretrial detention and case recycling, beyond constitutional and legal limits.<\/p>\n Its statement<\/a> said Badr\u2019s terrorism circuit renewed detention 45 days on 12 July in State Security Case No. 65 of 2021 without justification or response to defence arguments.<\/p>\n Arrested in March 2020, she faced banned-group, false-news and social-media allegations over early COVID-19 health posts in Case No. 535 of 2020.<\/p>\n The sole provider for her parents, she could not farewell her father, who died of cancer weeks after arrest. Five years damaged physical and mental health, including chronic bone and joint problems, while her older mother struggles with visits between Qanater and 10th of Ramadan prisons.<\/p>\n The commission condemned events during detention renewals before Cairo\u2019s Second Terrorism Criminal Circuit inside Badr on 13 July 2025.<\/p>\n Lawyer testimonies it documented<\/a> described dozens held over seven hours in closed double iron cages behind glass and visual and sound barriers, without ventilation, toilets or water in extreme heat. Exhaustion and fainting caused screaming and frantic knocking, alarming the courtroom.<\/p>\n Security officials evaded inquiries. A colonel threatened a woman lawyer with incitement allegations simply for seeking reassurance about detainees, violating legal independence under constitutional Article 198.<\/p>\n Lawyers and the commission sought urgent independent investigation, accountability for threats and inhumane conditions and exceeded detention, respect for defence independence, and intervention by the Bar Association, National Council for Human Rights and international organisations.<\/p>\n It called events grave violations of rights and fair-trial safeguards requiring comprehensive review of detention and trial practices.<\/p>\n Egyptian and international groups sought an immediate end to harassment and intimidation of Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression director Mohamed Abdel Salam, describing systematic retaliation against lawful rights work contrary to constitutional and international duties.<\/p>\n Their Wednesday, 23 July statement<\/a> said he was held at Cairo Airport for around an hour on 20 May 2025 without legal grounds, his passport seized and travel and work questioned. He was told to attend National Security premises for further questioning without legal authority. On 23 May an officer called him to collect the passport.<\/p>\n His passport was previously confiscated in 2018 with an unlawful summons. In November 2022, plainclothes officers monitored AFTE\u2019s offices intensively for two weeks.<\/p>\n AFTE first sought funding approval through the Social Solidarity Ministry in May under Law No. 149 of 2019. Despite full documents, no approval had arrived, obstructing resources.<\/p>\n Opening a bank account after 2023 legal registration took eleven months at a private bank amid unofficial suggestions of approvals from other, believed security, bodies.<\/p>\nThe Old Rent Law Threatens the Most Vulnerable<\/h2>\n
Cancer Patients\u2019 Suffering at Gustave Roussy<\/h2>\n
The Harm Reduction Unit Crisis Continues<\/h2>\n
Enforced Disappearance in Sinai<\/h2>\n
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The State\u2019s Position<\/h3>\n
Documenting a Closed Region<\/h3>\n
Development Bulldozers Enter El-Reesa in El-Arish<\/h2>\n
Calls to Link European Support to Human Rights Reform<\/h2>\n
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EUR Four Billion without Guarantees?<\/h3>\n
The Universal Periodic Review<\/h2>\n
US Sanctions a UN Rapporteur over a Palestine War Crimes Report<\/h2>\n
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Impunity for Torture<\/h2>\n
269 Death Sentences in the First Half of 2025<\/h2>\n
Court Removes Alaa Abdel Fattah from Terrorism Lists<\/h2>\n
Ahmed Douma Released on Bail<\/h2>\n
The \u201cTenants\u2019 Lawyer\u201d Released<\/h2>\n
Marwa Arafa\u2019s Trial after More than Five Years\u2019 Pretrial Detention<\/h2>\n
Seventeen Rights Organisations Demand Salah Soltan\u2019s Release<\/h2>\n
EIPR Calls for Nermin Hussein\u2019s Release<\/h2>\n
Egyptian Commission: Grave Violations against Detainees and Lawyers<\/h2>\n
Rights Organisations Demand an End to Targeting AFTE\u2019s Director<\/h2>\n
Egyptian Migrants\u2019 Boat Sinks off Libya<\/h2>\n