{"id":16560,"date":"2024-12-30T17:10:33","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T15:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=16560"},"modified":"2026-10-30T00:10:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T22:10:54","slug":"deleted-lines-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/deleted-lines-2\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Criticism of the Asylum Law, Calls to Free Abdulrahman Yusuf, and Security Threats against Rasha Azab (Deleted Lines: Issue 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"z3-read z3-policy z3-newsletter\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<section class=\"z3r-intro\">\n<p class=\"z3r-lead\">From the asylum law to detention and threats against journalists: Egypt\u2019s rights record in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"z3p-meta\">Deleted Lines | Issue 2 | December 2024<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<nav class=\"z3p-toc\" aria-label=\"Newsletter contents\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">In this issue<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#opening\">Opening<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-01\">1. Abdulrahman Yusuf and cross-border repression<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-02\">2. Asylum and international scrutiny<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-03\">3. Prisons, detention and justice<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-04\">4. Political participation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-05\">5. Press and digital freedoms<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-06\">6. Egyptians abroad and refugee rights<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-07\">7. The right to health<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#section-08\">8. Women&#x27;s rights<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<section id=\"opening\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">Opening<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Prepared by<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Prepared by: Shimaa, Aya Yasser, Ahmed Gamal Ziada<\/b><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-01\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">1<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>1. Abdulrahman Yusuf and cross-border repression<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Calls to release Abdulrahman Yusuf<\/h3>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11478\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-1.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-1-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-1-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-1-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/> More than<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSdfVfSmeAWUL08p2lPBvFqYisF7MRzOITpLTrKJzKIKOyAFog\/viewform\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 30 organisations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and political parties and 150 public figures called for the immediate and unconditional release of the poet Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, whom the Lebanese authorities detained on 28 December 2024 on the basis of a security cooperation memorandum with the Egyptian authorities. The signatories stressed in a joint petition that his detention represents a serious escalation of the practices of transnational repression, which are used to settle political scores with opponents and human rights defenders.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The poet Abdulrahman Yusuf was arrested while returning from Syria, on the basis of a memorandum from the Arab Interpol issued by the Council of Arab Interior Ministers. The petition described the charges against him, including &#8220;inciting the destabilisation of the state&#8221; and &#8220;spreading false news&#8221;, as politically motivated and based on politicised court rulings issued against him in Egypt, among them a three-year prison sentence for spreading false news and a similar one for allegedly insulting the judiciary.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The petition considered Al-Qaradawi&#8217;s detention an illegitimate exploitation of international security agreements, noting that such practices violate fundamental freedoms and misuse security cooperation as a means of suppressing dissenting voices abroad. The signatories stressed that handing Al-Qaradawi over to the Egyptian authorities could expose him to the risk of political persecution and ill-treatment, in direct violation of the Convention against Torture, which obliges Lebanon not to deport any person to a state where they may face the risk of torture or cruel treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The petition demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the poet Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and a halt to any measures that could lead to his handover to the Egyptian authorities, where he faces the risk of political persecution and the absence of any guarantees of a fair trial. The petition also called on the international community to act urgently to confront these practices, which exploit international security cooperation as a tool to suppress freedoms and violate human rights, stressing the need to hold accountable the states that use these tools to settle their political scores with opponents.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3><b>A call for international action<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The signatories stressed that the case of Abdulrahman Yusuf highlights a recurring pattern of exploiting international security cooperation to restrict freedom of expression and target human rights defenders. They explained that such practices require urgent action by the international community to put pressure on states that violate their international obligations and to protect individuals&#8217; fundamental freedoms, stressing the importance of strengthening international oversight to ensure that states abide by humanitarian standards in security cooperation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-02\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">2<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>2. Asylum and international scrutiny<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>UN criticism of the asylum law<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11480\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-2.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-2-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-2-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-2-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A number of special rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council levelled sharp criticism at Egypt&#8217;s new draft asylum law, which the House of Representatives has passed and which awaits ratification by the president. In a joint letter, the rapporteurs expressed their concern that the law, in its current form, could violate Egypt&#8217;s international obligations and put refugees&#8217; rights at risk.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The letter highlighted that the law distinguishes between refugees who enter the country by legal and by illegal means, imposing a waiting period of up to a year on those who enter by irregular means, compared with only six months for those who enter by lawful means. The rapporteurs described this distinction as lacking fairness, especially since most refugees are forced to enter countries by irregular means, fleeing conflicts or persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rapporteurs also pointed to a clause that imposes criminal penalties, including imprisonment and fines, on refugees who do not submit their applications within 45 days of entering the country. They warned that criminalising refugees because of the way they entered contravenes the 1951 Refugee Convention, which guarantees them protection regardless of how they arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3><strong>Restrictions on fundamental rights<\/strong><\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rapporteurs criticised the restrictions imposed on refugees&#8217; fundamental rights, as the law prohibits engaging in political and trade union activities and also bars the practice of religious rites except for followers of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The letter stressed that these clauses constitute a flagrant violation of the civil and political rights guaranteed by international treaties.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rapporteurs expressed their concern at the absence of provisions reinforcing the principle of &#8220;non-refoulement&#8221;, which prohibits returning refugees to countries where they may be exposed to danger or torture. They noted that the absence of clear guarantees protecting refugees during the long waiting periods for their asylum applications to be considered leaves them exposed to the risk of forced deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In their letter, the rapporteurs called on the Egyptian authorities to amend the law to ensure that it conforms with international standards. The demands included abolishing the distinction between refugees based on the way they entered the country and removing the criminal penalties imposed for irregular entry. They also called for the principle of &#8220;non-refoulement&#8221; to be included in the text of the law to protect refugees from deportation to countries where they may be exposed to danger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The letter stressed the importance of ensuring transparency in the work of the Permanent Committee for Refugee Affairs, with fair and clear criteria set for processing asylum applications. The rapporteurs also stressed the need to consult civil society and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to ensure the drafting of a law in line with Egypt&#8217;s international obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The letter was signed by a number of UN rapporteurs, among them Adam Dhadi (Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants), Heba Hagrass (Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities), Irene Khan (Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression) and Gina Romero (Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association). The letter also carried the signatures of Nazila Ghanea (Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief), Siobh\u00e1n Mullally (Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children) and Laura Nyirinkindi (chair of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Special rapporteurs are independent experts affiliated with the United Nations Human Rights Council who work under a specific mandate to monitor human rights conditions in particular areas, such as migration, freedom of expression or combating discrimination. Under the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the rapporteurs have the right to send official communications to states regarding laws or policies that may conflict with international human rights standards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This role is based on international rules that stipulate the obligation of states parties to international conventions, such as the 1951 Refugee Convention, to respect and protect human rights. When the rapporteurs receive reports or complaints about possible violations, they can intervene through official letters requesting clarifications or proposing amendments. These letters are not legally binding, but they carry considerable political and moral weight, as they place states under the international microscope and press them to amend their policies or laws to avoid international criticism. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the case of the Egyptian asylum law, the special rapporteurs commented on the basis of their responsibility to ensure that national legislation conforms with international obligations.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Egypt at the Universal Periodic Review<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11482\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-3.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-3-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-3-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a-3-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/>13 organisations submitted their recommendations to the Egyptian government ahead of the discussion of its human rights record before the United Nations on 17 December 2024, and 13 Egyptian human rights organisations published<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cihrs.org\/egypt-joint-report-on-mounting-human-rights-crisis\/#:~:text=%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1%20%D8%A3%D9%82%D8%B1%20%D8%A8%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AF%20%D8%AD%D8%AF%D8%A9%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%AA%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9%20%D9%88%D9%81%D9%82%20%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A9,%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9%20%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9%20%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A9%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%8A%20%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%84%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B5%D9%81%20%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a joint report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the worsening of the human rights crisis in Egypt over the past five years. The organisations submitted a copy of this report to the United Nations last July, as part of the preparations for the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Egypt&#8217;s human rights record before the United Nations, scheduled to be held next January, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report revealed the escalating intensity of human rights violations under a systematic strategy in which all state institutions take part, which has led to further political, economic and social crises that continue to batter Egyptians, reviewing the mechanisms through which the authorities criminalise the rights related to engaging in political activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It shed light in particular on the events of the 2024 presidential election and the targeting of President El-Sisi&#8217;s rivals and their supporters. It also set out the indicators of the escalating intensity of violations in the period from November 2019 until the middle of this year, focusing in particular on violations relating to the right to life and combating the death penalty, protection from torture and enforced disappearance, peaceful assembly and association, as well as women&#8217;s rights and combating violence against women, gender and sexual rights and freedoms, and the human rights situation in Sinai. In addition, it covered conditions in places of detention, violations against refugees, the forced eviction of residents, and the repression of Egyptian activists abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report highlighted the emptiness of government initiatives that claim to address the human rights situation while aiming only to whitewash the record of the Egyptian authorities before the international community. It warned of active measures the Egyptian government has recently taken to lend legitimacy to the practices and violations that have continued throughout the past decade, and to attempt to entrench and codify them, which proves that there is no intention whatsoever to change or reform them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report presented a set of recommendations whose implementation it considered first steps towards addressing the human rights crisis in Egypt, starting with the immediate suspension of the death penalty in preparation for its abolition and an immediate halt to executions, through several recommendations relating to preventing arbitrary detention and improving prison conditions, to recommendations for legislative amendments that guarantee protection against the use of the arsenal of repressive laws to take revenge on opponents, throw them into prison and try them on fabricated charges. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The organisations demanded that the government release tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience, put an end to the systematic practices of torture and enforced disappearance and hold those involved in them accountable, and allow independent human rights organisations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect prison conditions. They also demanded an end to the practice of &#8220;recycling&#8221; detainees in new cases to extend their detention periods, and an end to the use of terrorism offences to arbitrarily detain opponents on repeated charges and without evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/eipr.org\/sites\/default\/files\/reports\/pdf\/lmrj_ldwry_lshml_lmsr_bmjls_hqwq_lnsn_-_ldwr_lrb.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reviewed the state of civil liberties, justice, economic and social rights, women&#8217;s rights and gender equality, and freedom of religion and belief, as well as the moral authoritarianism that has been escalating in recent years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its report, the Initiative documented the introduction of a legal system that further besieges and diminishes Egyptians&#8217; civil rights and freedoms, such as the law regulating protest, which in practice amounts to a ban on the right to peaceful assembly and protest, and the cybercrime and terrorism laws, which are used to besiege freedom of expression and criminalise its exercise. The Initiative&#8217;s report also documented the rising use of precautionary measures, foremost among them pretrial detention, to extend the detention of those who do not agree with the political orientations and opinions adopted by state bodies and to deprive them of the right to a trial, and the re-listing of pretrial detainees in new cases while they are in detention to ensure that their detention continues in breach of the law, in the practice that has come to be known as &#8220;recycling&#8221;. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its monitoring, the report addressed the continuation and introduction of laws that ensure that opportunities to participate in political life are closed off to Egyptians at large, such as the Political Parties Law, which imposes wide-ranging restrictions on the right to form parties and engage in political activity through them, quite apart from what the practical reality imposes, which allows the security agencies to besiege and interfere in the work of civil entities, whether these entities are parties or syndicates; the report cited as an example the incidents of thuggery and violence witnessed at the general assembly of the Engineers Syndicate last year.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a related context, Amnesty International <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/ar\/latest\/news\/2024\/12\/https-www-amnesty-org-en-latest-news-2024-12-egypt-president-al-sisi-must-reject-new-asylum-law-which-violates-refugee-rights\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called on<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on 16 December, not to ratify the new asylum law, which parliament approved on 19 November 2024 as the country&#8217;s first asylum law, considering that, if enacted, it would further undermine the rights of refugees in Egypt, amid the ongoing crackdown on people seeking protection and safety in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The organisation explained that the law restricts the right to seek asylum, lacks due process guarantees, and transfers responsibility for registering asylum seekers and determining their refugee status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the Egyptian government, noting that the law does not explicitly prohibit refoulement, against the backdrop of the Egyptian police and EU-funded border guard forces carrying out mass arrests and unlawful deportations of Sudanese refugees who crossed the border into Egypt seeking safety from the raging armed conflict in Sudan. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Refugees Platform in Egypt warned that the &#8220;Asylum of Foreigners&#8221; law passed in the Egyptian House of Representatives represents a serious retreat from Egypt&#8217;s international and constitutional obligations and threatens the existing framework for protecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, because of the broad powers granted to the new governmental committee without any controls or oversight, which opens the door to abuse of power, the unjustified toughening of penalties and the criminalisation of providing support or assistance to refugees, even when done for humanitarian motives, and because of the absence of legal guarantees for the fair and transparent adjudication of asylum applications, in addition to the restriction of the right to appeal and challenge the committee&#8217;s decisions. It stressed, in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=618629697178080&amp;id=100070931665136&amp;rdid=US4EivcRPZzGB10F#\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">statement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it issued, that it will continue to demand a halt to the implementation of this law and its return to the discussion table with the participation of civil society organisations and the relevant experts, to ensure that its flaws are addressed and that it conforms with Egypt&#8217;s international obligations, and that it will also demand accountability for everyone who contributed to preparing or passing this law, which it considers illegal and which threatens the lives and rights of thousands of refugees residing in Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>To read a report Zawia3 published on the law: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/new-asylum-law\/\"><b>Protection or restrictions? Widespread criticism of Egypt&#8217;s new asylum law <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-03\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">3<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>3. Prisons, detention and justice<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Prison conditions<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9880\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u062c\u0646\u060c-\u062a\u0635\u0645\u064a\u0645-\u0623\u062e\u064a\u0631.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u062c\u0646\u060c-\u062a\u0635\u0645\u064a\u0645-\u0623\u062e\u064a\u0631.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u062c\u0646\u060c-\u062a\u0635\u0645\u064a\u0645-\u0623\u062e\u064a\u0631-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u062c\u0646\u060c-\u062a\u0635\u0645\u064a\u0645-\u0623\u062e\u064a\u0631-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u062c\u0646\u060c-\u062a\u0635\u0645\u064a\u0645-\u0623\u062e\u064a\u0631-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence documented in its Archive of Oppression, during last November, 242 cases of violations inside prisons and places of detention, distributed as follows: 117 cases of reappearance after enforced disappearance, 30 new cases of enforced disappearance, 20 cases of recycling, 21 cases of harassment inside places of detention, 12 of medical neglect, 4 of collective harassment, and one death inside places of detention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For its part, the &#8220;Article 55&#8221; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfjustice.org\/ar\/%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A9-55-%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%83\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">coalition<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> expressed its concern over the increasing violations inside prisons and detention facilities in Egypt during November 2024. Its members considered that these violations come amid the Egyptian authorities&#8217; disregard for international and local demands to improve the human rights situation, which reflects the continuation of systematic policies that contradict the Egyptian Constitution and international standards.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Egyptian Front had submitted<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/egyptianfront.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Detention-Conditions-UPR-2024-EFHR-2.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> its individual report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the Universal Periodic Review in June 2024, which included information and recommendations on conditions in places of detention, with a focus on the new prisons. Although the Egyptian government accepted all the recommendations of the 2019 Universal Periodic Review relating to the minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners and torture practices in places of detention, Egyptian detainees still suffer from continuing violations, including ill-treatment, torture, solitary confinement, bans on visits and deprivation of medical care. The report detailed incidents of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, in addition to deprivation of medical care and visits, and solitary confinement. The Front made 11 recommendations, including the adoption of an independent national system to monitor all places of detention.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Presidential pardons for Sinai residents<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11497\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-5.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-5-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-5-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-5-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/>President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a presidential decree pardoning 54 of the convicted people from Sinai on Tuesday, 24 December, about ten days after ratifying the military rulings issued against 62 civilians from North Sinai Governorate, among them tribal figures, activists and journalists, over calls for demonstrations and largely peaceful protest in which they demanded the right to return to the lands from which they had been forcibly displaced. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights welcomed the presidential decision, considering it a step in the right direction, and also demanded that the charges be dropped against eight other detainees, among them journalists, who were not covered by the pardon decision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">17 human rights organisations had expressed their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecrf.net\/posts\/pfbid0uDfGCZvKWwVGxsGZo9sdW5pkogaBxB9KmEsKmrQPAeYEzjNB39R6eNX5YezVABAAl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">condemnation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the military rulings issued against them, which they described as unjust and harsh, sentencing 62 citizens to between three and ten years in prison, handed down by a military court on 14 December, and the organisations stated in their statement that the rulings reflect a serious escalation in the policies of the Egyptian authorities towards the forcibly displaced population, policies which continue to ignore their fundamental rights, foremost among them their right to return to their lands and their right to a fair trial before their natural judge, away from exceptional courts that lack the guarantees of justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The roots of the case go back to August 2023: as ten years passed since the forced displacement of the residents of the cities of Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid amid the military counterterrorism operations, the people of Rafah organised an open-ended sit-in to demand their right to return to their lands. The army forces dispersed the demonstration by force and arrested a number of the protesters, who were then referred to a military trial, which issued its ruling on 14 December.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Human rights lawyer <\/span><b>Mahienour El-Massry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> considers this case very complicated because of the major violations that took place in it, starting from the arrests through to the physical assaults they were subjected to during their interrogation, in addition to their referral to a military trial, which represents an expansion in resorting to the military judiciary, even though the matter concerns these people&#8217;s attempt to return to their lands in North Sinai, and the authorities had promised them that they would return and that nothing prevented their return.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She tells Zawia3 that these people went not only to protect their land, which had been taken from them at one point, but they protect the land in general, especially in light of the developments in the genocidal war on Gaza and the Zionist occupation army&#8217;s continued talk of it being an empty space that would allow a number of Gaza&#8217;s residents to be displaced there; what they are doing is protecting the land, but the authorities&#8217; response to it was violence against them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mahienour believes that the regime sometimes issues rulings without regard for the social costs that may be paid at some moment because of unjust rulings. She considers this pardon a correction of part of a big mistake that occurred, but the bigger correction remains returning these people to their lands.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3><b>Prosecution Without Complicity: the prosecution is hostage to the authorities, not to the law<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10369\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/\u0642\u0627\u0646\u0648\u0646.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/\u0642\u0627\u0646\u0648\u0646.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/\u0642\u0627\u0646\u0648\u0646-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/\u0642\u0627\u0646\u0648\u0646-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/\u0642\u0627\u0646\u0648\u0646-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The &#8220;Prosecution Without Complicity&#8221; campaign shed light on the violations committed by the Egyptian Public Prosecution against citizens. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Torturemap\/posts\/pfbid02AeXcLTriR9x13Z4hQbqXr4KY5ejwTyNrV7CPciokaP6jCf5Bb1xb7RK7sFtB3Ejbl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stated that the Public Prosecution has often appeared as a tool in the hands of the political regime rather than as an independent body working under the law. It explained that this subordination makes it difficult for the prosecution to take bold positions to hold those involved in crimes of torture accountable. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It stated that, in the absence of the political will for reform, the prosecution appears unable to act seriously in confronting human rights violations, and that this deviation from the prosecution&#8217;s true role represents a threat to the rule of law and undermines any attempts to hold those responsible for torture accountable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign said that the Public Prosecution must deal seriously with every complaint relating to torture, but reality indicates that many complaints are closed before investigations even begin. The campaign also explained that the investigations opened in torture cases are merely a farce staged to show a supposed concern for justice, while the perpetrators continue their work undeterred. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=573636835427134&amp;set=a.137799409010881\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It noted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the prosecution avoids holding security officers involved in torture accountable and prefers to close cases without follow-up. It considered that this behaviour makes the entire judicial system complicit in the continuation of torture and leads to an erosion of trust in the justice institutions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign stressed that, although the Public Prosecution is responsible for monitoring these places of detention, there is a major shortcoming in activating the prosecution&#8217;s oversight role, as many human rights reports <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecrf.net\/posts\/pfbid028myQPn1dn8X8Pth4NYuVHLu1YFJpLUsf2RD6k11oiXZXdftygvvTPG3FudBe5mv6l\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have pointed out<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the prosecution turns a blind eye to investigating torture complaints received from male and female prisoners or deals with them superficially, recommending that the prosecution&#8217;s role be strengthened in conducting periodic and unannounced visits to places of detention and in seriously investigating every torture complaint submitted, to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable and to prevent the recurrence of violations.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Mohamed Adel on hunger strike<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11486\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The former official spokesperson of the 6 April Youth Movement, Mohamed Adel, announced<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nabeh.alganadi.14\/posts\/pfbid08tREKRihfSAnAxe67a9hDYrpB68rHxobhUrRmXceDSYQsc8nSiYeWdesaLUGPzZbl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> his hunger strike <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on Tuesday, 24 December, after he was prevented from sitting the first of his exams for the law diploma, even though his lawyer had submitted the approved exam timetable and the certificate proving his enrolment at the faculty to the Prisons Authority.  <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, his lawyer <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecrf.net\/posts\/pfbid0jN48bodvRytKzLAvJiTD2QUZyVqsjDqHuLqJwvHwUBXEZKjXkPSj3V5oJNW16T8hl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">submitted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a complaint to the Advocate General of the Mansoura Prosecution, on behalf of his client, against the warden of Gamasa High-Security Prison, over the deliberate refusal of the warden of Gamasa High-Security Prison to convene the postgraduate exam committee (Public Law Diploma) of the Faculty of Law at Mansoura University for his client, which had been scheduled to begin on Monday, 23 December 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mohamed Adel <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecrf.net\/posts\/pfbid02njYKDpzYTgv3HiFShPFVukUx3ADaY4fJCavJio7N1wcNQzPj3oXenokL6B2QyRDnl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">also personally submitted <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a complaint with the same content from inside the prison to the Prisons Authority. The prison and the Prisons Authority had previously been officially notified of the exam timetable and of the faculty&#8217;s approval for the committee to convene at Gamasa Prison, but the date of the exam came without the committee being convened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is worth noting that Mohamed Adel has been held in pretrial detention since 18 June 2018, when he was arrested while preparing to leave Aga police station at six in the morning after completing his daily police monitoring. Adel has been recycled twice in addition to the original case; he was released only in the first, numbered 5606 of 2018 Aga Administrative, on bail of EGP 10,000, while he remains in pretrial detention pending the second case, No. 4118 of 2018 Sherbin Administrative, and the third case, No. 467 of 2020 Supreme State Security Prosecution. He faces the same charges in both cases: joining a terrorist group knowing its aims, financing it, and supplying the group with information from inside his place of detention. A ruling was issued against him sentencing him to 4 years in prison with labour, to be enforced, in case No. 28334 of 2023 South Mansoura Misdemeanours Appeal, registered as No. 2981 of 2023 Aga Misdemeanours.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Releases and prolonged detention<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Monday, 23 December, the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered the release of 19 defendants spread across 11 cases open since 2022 and 2023, among them Aida Mahmoud Osman (44), a member of the Nasserist Party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aida spent about two years in pretrial detention after she was arrested at her home at dawn on 27 April 2023, and she disappeared for days before being brought before the State Security Prosecution on 2 May 2023, which questioned her in case 710 of 2023 and charged her with &#8220;joining a group founded in violation of the law&#8221;. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/eipr.org\/press\/2024\/12\/%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-20-%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%B1%D9%8B%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A8%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%8A-%D8%A5%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%B9%D8%B6%D9%88%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initiative<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">  considered in a statement that Aida&#8217;s release, even though it came late, is a correction of a mistake that lasted a long time, and that the consequences of this mistake did not affect Aida alone but consequently also affected her two children, who were deprived of their mother for twenty months. The Egyptian Initiative called on the Public Prosecution, represented by the State Security Prosecution, to expand its review of the situation of pretrial detainees at a faster pace and for larger numbers. On the other hand, the Cairo Criminal Court for terrorism cases on Tuesday in December renewed the detention of a number of people held in various political cases for 45 days in pretrial detention, among them members of political parties.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Hoda Abdel Moneim<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On 10 December 2024, the State Security Prosecution referred Court of Cassation lawyer and former member of the National Council for Human Rights Hoda Abdel Moneim (65) to trial in case 800 of 2019 Supreme State Security. With this, the State Security Prosecution has charged Hoda in three cases with the same charges. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/eipr.org\/press\/2024\/12\/%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%8A-%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A5%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%89-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B9%D9%85-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A9\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">condemned <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the punitive legal prosecution that Abdel Moneim faces and the fact that she has been charged three times with the same charges without being confronted with a single serious piece of evidence during six years of arbitrary detention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abdel Moneim was charged with joining and financing a terrorist group for the first time on 31 October 2018, when she was arrested at her home and questioned in case 1552 of 2018, known in the media as the &#8220;Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms case&#8221;. She remained in pretrial detention for more than three years, before a ruling not subject to appeal was issued against her by the Emergency State Security Court, which sentenced her to five years in prison after convicting her of &#8220;joining a terrorist group&#8221;, while acquitting her of the financing charge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On 31 October 2023, Abdel Moneim was recycled for the third time instead of being released after serving the full sentence imposed on her. She was brought before the prosecution, which questioned her in case 730 of 2020 on the same charges for which she had already been tried. Hoda&#8217;s pretrial detention in the case then continued to be renewed for more than a year, with the latest detention renewal hearing held the day before yesterday, 9 December, via &#8220;video conference&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Marwa Arafa<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A number of human rights organisations, among them the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, demanded the release of human rights activist Marwa Arafa, who has spent about four years in pretrial detention away from her daughter, who has come to suffer from behavioural disorders because of the incident of her mother&#8217;s arrest, in addition to having developed autism and speech difficulties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The security forces carried out a raid on 20 April 2020, and following her arrest, Marwa Arafa remained disappeared for two weeks until she appeared before the State Security Prosecution on 4 May 2020, in case No. 570 of 2020 Supreme State Security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The case in which Marwa Arafa is being held includes more than 40 male and female defendants, most of whom face the charge of joining a terrorist group and committing a terrorism financing offence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecrf.net\/posts\/pfbid0BYqijXdphYjBekMftxV2sr5UAG5u4cfUigFj8BTxR3yM874iDsaTgtaFgi9gA71cl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commission<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stated that during her arrest Marwa was subjected to numerous violations, which began with the search of her home without any search or arrest warrant being presented, as well as her enforced disappearance for two weeks at the National Security headquarters in Nasr City, and the denial of regular legal visits, with only one visit a month of 20 minutes allowed. Meanwhile, the Association for Freedom of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/afteegypt.org\/posts\/pfbid02AdmGf3aHvLFKD92HBiTcjTofgXQptmSRBwc975sxfWMkc54rCXgNjX2EuU2Dacasl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thought and Expression<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stressed the deterioration of Arafa&#8217;s health in prison, as she suffered for months from continuous bleeding and did not receive the medical care needed to treat it.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Laila Soueif on hunger strike for Alaa Abdel Fattah<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laila Soueif, a university professor and the mother of political blogger and programmer Alaa Abdel Fattah, is approaching the completion of the third month of her open-ended hunger strike, demanding the release of her son after he completed his five-year sentence, on 19 November.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laila called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to make a phone call to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to demand the release of her son, the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The British newspaper<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/home-news\/egypt-foreign-office-abdel-al-fattah-b2667830.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Independent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> said that Soueif, who holds British and Egyptian nationality, &#8220;sits in the Christmas cold in front of the British Foreign Office, on hunger strike to demand the release of her son&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laila relies only on unsweetened green tea and rehydration salts, and she has lost nearly 25 kilograms in weight, noting that the ministry is following her health condition, &#8220;as a government employee receives a daily report on her health condition&#8221;, according to The Independent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laila Soueif, 68, announced on 30 September that she had begun a total hunger strike, after the release of her son was refused despite the end of his five-year sentence in accordance with the law.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Political detention and the authorities<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For his part, Court of Cassation lawyer <\/span><b>Islam Abdel Meguid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> believes that there is a contradiction in the authorities&#8217; approach to the file of political detainees that is difficult to explain. These contradictions appear in the pardon or release decisions announced by the authorities at the same time as they take arbitrary measures against other activists and opponents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He tells Zawia3 that what happened to the political activist Mohamed Adel is a flagrant violation of the prison regulations, in addition to the arbitrariness faced by political blogger and programmer Alaa Abdel Fattah, even though the authorities should have interpreted the legal texts in his favour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abdel Meguid believes that the authorities have no clear vision of how to deal with cases related to opinion and expression. He considers that referring cases to trial, as happened with lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim, is progress, since referring cases to the courts is better than keeping them in pretrial detention in investigations that have ended.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-04\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">4<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>4. Political participation<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Ahmed Tantawi and political participation<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11488\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-1.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-1-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-1-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-1-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The &#8220;Save Freedom of Opinion&#8221; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1008440067994497&amp;set=a.492665946238581\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> condemned the ruling rejecting the cassation appeal submitted by former MP and politician Ahmed Tantawi and upholding his one-year prison sentence and his ban from running in elections for 5 years, in case No. 2094 of 2024, known in the media as the &#8220;popular endorsements&#8221; case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign considered this decision a continuation of the authorities&#8217; approach of suppressing peaceful opposition in Egypt, in a way that threatens citizens&#8217; right to choose their representatives freely and fairly without fear of prosecution or harassment. The campaign believes that what Ahmed Tantawi and those with him in this case are being subjected to is part of a suffocating political climate dominated by the suppression of opposition voices and restrictions on freedom of expression and political activity, in addition to the continued use of the judiciary as a tool to silence peaceful opponents, which is a flagrant violation of Egypt&#8217;s international human rights obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The case goes back to accusations levelled against Ahmed Tantawi and a group of members and supporters of his electoral campaign of forging popular endorsements during his preparations to run in the last presidential election. The court of first instance issued a ruling sentencing him to one year in prison, suspended pending appeal; the appeal was later rejected and the prison sentence against him, his campaign manager and 21 of the campaign&#8217;s members and supporters was upheld.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign demands that all charges against Ahmed Tantawi and those with him in the popular endorsements case be dropped, and that he and his campaign manager, lawyer Mohamed Abou El-Diyar, be released after all the established legal avenues have been exhausted. It also demands an end to the authorities&#8217; widespread violations in the face of every peaceful democratic path the opposition in Egypt pursues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For its part, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression pointed out in its legal <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/advocacy\/position-papers\/2024\/12\/22\/39211-afteegypt.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">commentary <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that the trial revealed several fundamental problems that affected the defendants&#8217; right to a fair trial, as the investigation reports lack seriousness, since they do not mention any evidence of the defendants communicating with the Muslim Brotherhood, in addition to the short time between Ahmed Tantawi&#8217;s launch of the call to sign popular endorsements and the recording of the investigation report, with less than 24 hours separating them. This is not enough time to monitor meetings and identify campaign members and, most importantly, to monitor contact with the Muslim Brotherhood and learn its plans, as the investigation reports claim. On the other hand, the time separating arrests carried out by the same officer in the same governorate is in some cases as little as 15 minutes, despite the distance between the places of arrest, which indicates that the times recorded in the arrest reports are not plausible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the effect of the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights issued in 2014 did not extend to the existence of a judicial definition in previous incidents through which it could be known whether the endorsement forms of an applicant for candidacy in the presidential election are part of the electoral process or not, which negates the defendants&#8217; knowledge that the act referred to in the case was criminalised.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the report, the violations extended to the litigation stage before the Court of Cassation, as the lawyers of the defendants Ahmed Tantawi and Mohamed Abou El-Diyar filed the cassation appeal on 13 July 2024, requesting that the appeal be accepted and that the ruling issued by the Matariya Court of Appeal on 27 May 2024 sentencing the defendants to one year in prison with labour be overturned; the two appellants also requested a retrial of the appellants before a different panel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report explained that the defendants&#8217; defence based its challenge to the appeal court&#8217;s ruling on the plea of a breach of the rights of the defence, in that the appeal court did not respond to the substantive pleas that the criminalising text of Law No. 45 of 2014 in Article 65 does not apply to the incident subject to the charge; the defendants&#8217; defence supported this plea by arguing that the printed paper subject to the charge is not one of the papers of the electoral process. The defence team also relied on deficient reasoning, because the Matariya Court of Appeal based its ruling on investigations that were not serious.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-05\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">5<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>5. Press and digital freedoms<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Threats against Rasha Azab<\/h3>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11490\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-2.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-2-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-2-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-2-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/b>Journalist Rasha Azab revealed that she had been subjected to threats from the police to arrest her mother, in an attempt to pressure her into ending her ongoing sit-in inside the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo.<\/p>\n<p>Azab explained that these threats came after the escalation of the protest she has been leading for some time inside the syndicate, in protest at the deterioration of journalists&#8217; conditions and to demand the protection of media freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>Azab said in a statement: &#8220;I received direct threats to arrest my mother as a means of pressuring me to end the sit-in, and this step represents a serious and immoral escalation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She added that she will not back down from her position, despite what she described as &#8220;immoral pressure&#8221;, stressing that her demands focus on improving journalists&#8217; conditions and defending freedom of expression amid the growing challenges facing the media sphere in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>This development comes amid growing calls from syndicates and human rights organisations to stand in solidarity with Azab and ensure her safety, amid rising concern about the targeting of journalists and activists in Egypt.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Journalist Rasha Azab announced on Monday, 16 December 2024, that she was beginning an open-ended sit-in inside the Journalists Syndicate building to denounce the harassment she has faced since 7 October 2023. According to what she stated in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RashaPress\/status\/1868709199309656515\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">statement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> announcing her sit-in, she is threatened with arrest by the security agencies, and these threats have extended to phone calls. Azab decided, according to her statement, to begin the sit-in after she had pursued all legal avenues to no avail, and in protest at what she described as &#8220;the gang-like practices of the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Head of the Journalists Syndicate Khaled El-Balshy had, last November, submitted a report to the Public Prosecutor and a complaint to the Minister of Interior, demanding an investigation into the incidents of her being pursued, accountability for those responsible, and guarantees of her personal safety. However, the report has not led to any investigations as of the writing of this report.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On 26 December, a number of lawyers submitted a request from the Journalists Syndicate to the Advocate General of the Central Cairo Prosecutions concerning the theft of journalist Rasha Azab&#8217;s car, her being followed by members of National Security, the lack of action on the report she had filed with the Qasr El-Nil Prosecution, and the prosecution&#8217;s refusal even to receive the requests submitted by the lawyers and the Journalists Syndicate, which led to the requests being sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The Advocate General then met a number of members of the defence team and referred them to the head of the prosecution office, who endorsed the request under No. 1543 Central Cairo Electronic Petitions and asked the lawyers to follow up to look into developments. This coincided with the continuation of Rasha Azab&#8217;s sit-in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For its part, the &#8220;Save Freedom of Opinion&#8221; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1006909294814241&amp;set=a.492665946238581\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms expressed its full solidarity with journalist Rasha Azab and her demands for an end to the practices and violations she faces, as well as the harassment and security pursuit, which pushed her to begin a sit-in inside the Journalists Syndicate until these demands are met. The campaign condemned the practices and harassment Rasha Azab faces, and considers them an attempt at intimidation and threat, which will necessarily affect her professional and personal life, as well as her psychological state. It supported the journalist&#8217;s demands and her sit-in until she enjoys her full freedom. It demands that the security agencies take their hands off her, stop any attempts at harassment, and investigate the incidents about which she has previously filed reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MaryLawlorhrds\/status\/1870050559090127063\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">criticised<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the &#8220;campaign of intimidation&#8221; to which journalist and human rights defender Rasha Azab is being subjected, demanding that her safety be guaranteed and that this intimidation be ended.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary Lawlor said on X: &#8220;I am hearing disturbing news from Egypt that human rights defender and journalist Rasha Azab is being surveilled and threatened by suspected security agents following her peaceful protests against the war in Gaza.&#8221; She added: &#8220;The authorities must guarantee her safety and end this intimidation.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this context, Amnesty International&#8217;s Egypt researcher Mahmoud Shalaby <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/ar\/latest\/news\/2024\/12\/egypt-end-campaign-of-intimidation-against-government-critic-rasha-azab\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that &#8220;it is utterly shameful that Rasha Azab is being subjected to surveillance and threatened with arrest as a result of her peaceful activism. This sends a chilling message to other activists about the consequences of publicly expressing dissent in Egypt.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3><b>Journalist Sayed Saber&#8217;s detention continues<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><strong>The State Security Prosecution decided to renew the pretrial detention of writer and journalist Sayed Saber Sayed Salem for 15 days pending investigations in case No. 6499 of 2024 State Security.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The security forces had arrested the writer and journalist Sayed Saber on the evening of 26 November 2024, before he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution, which ordered his pretrial detention for 15 days on the charge of spreading false news. The &#8220;Save Freedom of Opinion&#8221; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ecrf.net\/posts\/pfbid02ELgvafFf7SewePFkXxMDGPkJjS5LUPutH6LgbsEwSRwd5ypz4FihZZdK4dxejTqvl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> suggested that Saber&#8217;s arrest came as a result of posts he had written on his account.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This comes as a continuation of the campaigns of arrests of journalists that have returned in recent months, which included the arrest and detention of translator and cartoonist Ashraf Omar and journalist Khaled Mamdouh.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Journalists Syndicate recommendations<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Journalists Syndicate had announced the recommendations of its sixth general conference, held from 14 to 16 December, which included a set of recommendations on freedoms and legislation, among them:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The release of all imprisoned journalists and the clearing of the prisons of those detained in cases of publishing, opinion and expression, particularly those who have exceeded the maximum period of pretrial detention, which is two years, and refraining from bringing new charges against them to keep them in detention.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The removal of journalists&#8217; names from terrorism lists after reviewing their situations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The issuing of a law abolishing custodial sentences for publishing and publicity offences, as part of the full legislative implementation of the constitutional provisions prohibiting custodial sentences for crimes committed through publishing and publicity, except for incitement to violence, discrimination and attacks on people&#8217;s honour.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The full and faithful application of the constitutional guarantees that ensure the freedom of journalistic practice within a comprehensive framework of freedom of thought, opinion, expression, creativity, the press and printing, and the removal of legislative restrictions on press freedom of all kinds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The introduction of a package of legislative amendments to delete and amend a number of articles of the Penal Code, the Anti-Terrorism Law, the Information Technology Crimes Law and the Code of Criminal Procedure, in light of the constitutional provisions and the principles of the Supreme Constitutional Court.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Full commitment to the guarantees the Constitution has established for the personal freedom of citizens in general, and to what it has ensured for the fairness and soundness of the procedures of accusation, arrest and trial, and the need for this to be reflected in the new Code of Criminal Procedure and the relevant legislation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The issuing of a freedom of information law, as a fundamental right of the citizen that has been suspended since it was enshrined in the Constitution more than ten years ago; the conference adopted a preliminary draft of this bill (the draft is in the attachments) and recommends forming a committee to complete its study urgently and submit it to the House of Representatives, the Cabinet, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, the Ministry of Communications and other bodies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Monopolistic practices in the fields of the press and media, and it demands activating the role of the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, as established by the Constitution and legislation, to prevent these practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lifting the blocking of all news websites and websites that provide media content, and ending the use of blocking as a precautionary or punitive measure without necessity, so that blocking takes place only on the basis of a judicial decision.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ending the security pursuit of the owners, managers and staff of websites because of their content or on the pretext of running websites without a licence.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speeding up decisions on the licence applications submitted by all news websites, treating the absence of a response or review within ninety days as final approval for granting the licence, not discriminating between websites because of their editorial policies or orientations, treating them all equally, and considering their applications with the same degree of attention and speed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applying Article 15 of the Political Parties Law to websites that are considered a form of &#8220;newspaper&#8221; under the Media Regulation Law.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These were in addition to a number of other recommendations issued by the conference concerning the freedom of the press and journalists and the economics and future of the profession. The conference was held under the name &#8220;Palestine Session&#8221;, and its programme included many sessions and round tables that discussed the conditions and crises of the Egyptian press, ending with a set of recommendations announced at a closing ceremony by the head of the Journalists Syndicate and a number of members of the council and the conference&#8217;s general secretariat.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3><b>Digital freedoms<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression documented in its <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/research\/monitoring-reports\/2024\/12\/15\/39148-afteegypt.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8220;Escalating violations: the third quarterly report on the state of freedom of expression in Egypt (1 July \u2013 30 September 2024)&#8221; the arrest of ten citizens over posts they published on their personal Facebook accounts in which they discussed or criticised economic conditions. The same pattern was followed in most cases: the person is arrested and then forcibly disappeared for several days or weeks without their family or lawyer knowing where they are and without any ability to communicate. After that, the person appears before the State Security Prosecution to be questioned. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report explained that the Public Prosecution brings fixed and repeated charges that include joining a terrorist group knowing its aims, publishing and broadcasting false news and statements liable to harm security and public order, and using a social media account for the purpose of spreading false news. In July, five citizens were arrested on different days over the course of the month. The prosecution questioned the defendants in the same case, No. 3434 of 2024 Supreme State Security, over Facebook posts that included complaints about healthcare, high prices and power cuts. In addition, some of them were questioned over joining a Telegram group calling for demonstrations on 12 July.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Association also documented, from July 2024, the arrest of three female TikTok content creators, who were arrested by the General Administration of Morals Investigations. The prosecution brought similar charges against them, including spreading debauchery and immorality, inciting vice, appearing in indecent videos on social media platforms, and violating the values of the Egyptian family. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-06\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">6<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>6. Egyptians abroad and refugee rights<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Consular restrictions on Egyptians abroad<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11492\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-3.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-3-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-3-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-3-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A decision issued by the Egyptian consulate in Marseille, France, in December, requiring a security review of Egyptians residing abroad before any official papers are issued to them, provoked controversy in human rights circles, as the decision was considered a restriction of freedoms and a violation of public rights, while legal and human rights circles stressed that it reflects the deepening of additional measures to pursue those residing abroad and impose security surveillance on them, and that it also contradicts the nature of the work of diplomatic missions and is aimed primarily at placing restrictions on the opposition abroad. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In light of the decision, Zawia3 contacted a number of Egyptians residing abroad, whether in France or in other countries such as Turkey, Qatar, Germany and Canada, who spoke of their annoyance at such decisions, which have been applied to them for years without official announcement and are used as a tool to repress opponents and human rights defenders outside Egypt, as they described it. They also stressed that the embassies periodically carry out security procedures and reviews on large numbers of them, with the aim of harassing them and placing them under security surveillance outside the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>To read a report Zawia3 published on the subject: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/egyptian-embassies\/\"><b>Egyptian embassies impose new arbitrary restrictions on those residing abroad<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3><b>Restrictions on Syrian refugees<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11461\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2391\" height=\"1344\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631.png 2391w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631-1536x863.png 1536w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0633\u0648\u0631\u064a\u064a\u0646-\u0641-\u0645\u0635\u0631-2048x1151.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2391px) 100vw, 2391px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, human rights organisations in Egypt documented that, over 8 and 9 December, the security forces dispersed a number of spontaneous gatherings and randomly arrested at least 30 Syrian men and women in 6th of October City, after members of the Syrian community tried to celebrate the announcement of the fall of Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s rule and the release of thousands of detainees and forcibly disappeared people from Syrian prisons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/eipr.org\/press\/2024\/12\/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A8%D8%B6-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%81%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%B3%D9%82%D9%88%D8%B7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%AF-%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%81-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%84\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revealed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that deportation orders had been issued for about three of the Syrians detained at First October police station, and that other detainees were being held at several police stations, among them Second October police station, bringing the number of detainees to about thirty people awaiting the decision of the Passports and Immigration Authority and the clearance of National Security regarding them, noting that a number of the detainees were released at dawn on Thursday, 12 December, and that an unspecified number of them remain in detention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reports have recently increased of strict restrictions being imposed on the entry of Syrians into Egypt, especially Syrians coming to its territory from other countries, as they now have to obtain prior security approval in addition to an entry visa, which ended the previous exceptions that allowed Syrians coming from the Gulf states, Europe and America to enter without additional complications. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is in addition to the large rise in residence fees and their renewal, which were 2,100 and have reached EGP 7,000, as well as the recent deportation of a number of Syrians for being linked to groups that affect Egyptian national security, as the Egyptian government announced last September, and these developments, which the authorities justify on grounds related to public security and national security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>To read a report Zawia3 published on the subject: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/syrians-in-egypt\/\"><b>Between residence restrictions and difficulties leaving: has Egypt become less welcoming to Syrians?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Egyptians missing in Syrian prisons<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The news of the fall of the Syrian regime on 8 December 2024, after armed factions took control of Damascus, revived the hopes of many Egyptian families of finding their sons who had been forcibly disappeared in Syria and detained in the prisons of the Assad regime over the past years, and they began posting their appeals for help on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No list of the names of Egyptians missing in Syria is available so far, but Zawia3, in the course of its search, documented the names and details of 20 of them. The Egyptian Ali Hussein Mohamed Ali has been forcibly disappeared in Syria since 2004, and Ramadan Ali Amer went missing on the outskirts of Damascus in 2008. Three other Egyptians have also been missing in Syria since 2008: (Mounir Abu Saleh El-Shahat El-Dereiny, Gamal Mohamed Ahmed El-Badry and Hatem Fakih Abdel Gabbar), and their relatives believe they were among the prisoners of Saydnaya or the Palestine Branch, while Khaled El-Mahdy Mohamed Barakat disappeared in 2012, and his relatives believe he was held in Mezzeh Military Prison. The following were arrested: (El-Husseiny Mohamed Fathallah, Mohamed Awny Abu Hagam, Ali Abdel Rahman Ali, Ibrahim Hamdy Abu El-Naga, Mohamed Abdel Ghaffar El-Sayed, Mostafa Mohamed Abdel Bary, Khaled Ibrahim Ali, Mohamed Ramadan Ibrahim, Hussein Saeed Abdel Muttalib, Ramadan Ali Mohamed, Ramadan Saleh El-Shahat and Khaled El-Mahdy Mohamed) near the Syrian-Lebanese border in 2013, and their names appeared among the detainees of the Palestine Branch prison. Abdel Qader Ali Radwan has been missing since 2015, and his relatives believe he was held in Saydnaya Prison, and Ahmed Abdel Gawad Ali Ibrahim went missing in the Lebanese city of Jbeil in 2020, and his relatives saw him in a video of those freed from Saydnaya Prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>To read a report Zawia3 published on the subject: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/egyptians-in-assads-prisons\/\"><b>Egyptians in Assad&#8217;s prisons: will they return after the fall of the regime?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Refugee children and access to education<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/ar\/news\/2024\/12\/02\/egypt-education-restricted-refugees\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">announced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that tens of thousands of refugee and asylum-seeking children in Egypt are out of school, for reasons mostly related to major bureaucratic obstacles to registration and the lack of free education available to the public, calling on the Egyptian authorities to remove the barriers that prevent refugee and asylum-seeking children from entering school, and urging international partners to support humanitarian funding for refugee education in Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Palestinians in Egypt<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On another front, the newspaper &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alaraby.co.uk\/society\/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%B9-%D9%8A%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%A3%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Al-Araby Al-Jadeed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; reported that wounded Palestinians and their companions, and many Palestinian families, are living in extremely difficult humanitarian conditions in the city of El-Arish in North Sinai Governorate, in eastern Egypt, as a result of the lack of basic services for them for more than two weeks, foremost among them the meals that community organisations had been providing them in the past period.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-07\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">7<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>7. The right to health<\/h2>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>The Medical Liability Law<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11494\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-4.png 1366w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-4-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-4-1024x418.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0633\u0637\u0648\u0631-\u0645\u062d\u0630\u0648\u0641\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u062f\u062f-\u0627\u0644\u062a\u0627\u0646\u064a4-4-768x314.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The draft Medical Liability Law continues to provoke widespread controversy in medical and human rights circles, at a time when the bill awaits the approval of the House of Representatives after the approval of the Senate. For its part, the Doctors&#8217; Syndicate <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/Egyptian.Medical.Syndicate\/posts\/pfbid0A4Zjkf2y8EVotrhsHbCNkGziUA8bi2JgKHNK26XxU3BEbBjzKWw5QvcER9U5h96Rl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">affirmed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> its objection to the law because it criminalises doctors with imprisonment in medical error cases without proof of negligence, and codifies the penalty of imprisonment in professional and medical error cases, even outside cases of medical negligence, demanding amendments similar to the laws of Arab countries that rely on the reports of medical committees before a penalty is imposed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most prominent of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/Egyptian.Medical.Syndicate\/posts\/pfbid0Mp34TJae9wmzSkyJb4KDdysfVtLo4ZLKZYnYiLC1yGorxXkkEqZXyr4rjKy61BGQl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">syndicate&#8217;s objections<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> concerned Article 5 of Chapter Two (Obligations of the Service Provider and the Facility) of the Medical Liability Law, which stipulates that: &#8220;The service provider must record the health condition of the service recipient and their personal and family medical history before starting diagnosis and treatment&#8221;, considering that it would be more appropriate in this article to exempt the emergency cases in every specialty that require direct intervention and the swift rescue of the patient; Article 12 of Chapter Three (Committees and Technical Expertise), which stipulates that: &#8220;Without prejudice to litigation, the complaint shall be submitted to the technical secretariat of the Supreme Committee or one of its affiliated offices&#8221;, explaining that this means there are multiple bodies of litigation, and therefore the syndicate demands that the bodies of litigation be unified in the technical committee, which would determine the type of medical error inflicted on the patient; in addition to Article (18), which stipulates that: &#8220;The Forensic Medicine Authority, the investigating authority or the competent court may draw on the report issued by the subcommittee for medical liability&#8221;, explaining that this means that the committee&#8217;s technical decision is not binding on the competent authorities, and therefore the syndicate demands that the decision be technically binding on all the competent authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The syndicate also <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=1120684732992553&amp;rdid=XPhB5HhcttpZhkNO\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">expressed <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">its objection to Article (23) of Chapter Five (Penalties), which stipulates: &#8220;Without prejudice to any harsher penalty provided for in another law&#8221;, considering that this means the service provider could be exposed to harsher penalties under other laws despite the report of the Supreme Technical Committee; in addition to Article (27), which stipulates that: &#8220;Anyone who causes the death of the service recipient shall be punished by imprisonment and a fine, or either of them, and the penalty is increased if it occurred as a result of a gross medical error&#8221;, noting that the legislator did not distinguish between (medical error), which may be committed by a qualified doctor in a licensed facility but in breach of medical references and requires compensation without imprisonment since there is no intent, and (medical negligence) resulting from a doctor who is unqualified, practising outside their specialty or intoxicated, which may warrant imprisonment.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also registered its objection to Article (28), which stipulates that: &#8220;Any service provider who, through their medical error, causes injury or harm to the service provider shall be punished by imprisonment and a fine, or either of them, and the penalty is higher if the medical error results in a permanent disability&#8221;, because the legislator did not distinguish between (medical error), which may be committed by a qualified doctor in a licensed facility but in breach of medical references and requires compensation without imprisonment since there is no intent, and (medical negligence) resulting from a doctor who is unqualified, practising outside their specialty or intoxicated, which may warrant imprisonment. The syndicate also rejects the text of Article (29): &#8220;Pretrial detention decisions shall be assessed in crimes committed by the service provider during or because of the provision of medical service&#8221;, because this means there will be pretrial detention in professional cases until the technical report is issued by the competent committees, which is not appropriate for the medical profession, since a doctor&#8217;s workplace, residence and syndicate are known; therefore the syndicate demands the complete abolition of pretrial detention in professional cases. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking to Zawia3, <\/span><b>Alaa Ghanam<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, head of the right to health programme at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and an expert in health sector reform, stresses that the Medical Liability Law is a necessary law whose passage has been awaited for about 20 years, but it is flawed because there are reservations about the articles relating to the imprisonment of doctors who commit a medical error, since this relates to civil rather than criminal rights; the Supreme Committee affiliated with the Prime Minister and formed under the law should handle cases of medical error, a member of the Public Prosecution could join it, and its decision should be final and conclusive, without referral to the prosecution.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ghanam explains that cases in which doctors commit felonies, such as organ trafficking or impersonating a medical professional, are not separate from the criminal law that applies to all citizens, whereas medical errors are supposed to fall within civil errors, with the penalty being suspension from work and compensation, and the government fund paying compensation to the patients harmed, calling for the statements of the Doctors&#8217; Syndicate and civil society organisations on the law to be taken into consideration before it is passed. <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h3>Infant formula subsidies<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In another context, the Egyptian government <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youm7.com\/story\/2024\/12\/4\/%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D8%B5%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%B5%D8%B1%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B7%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%84\/6800558\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">decided<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in the first week of December, to impose new restrictions aimed at reducing support for the infant milk dispensing system and limiting those eligible to very specific <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elwatannews.com\/news\/details\/7719132#goog_rewarded\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">categories<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, confined to only eight cases (the death of the mother, or her suffering from a serious illness such as kidney or liver failure, or diseases requiring radiation treatment such as cancer, or proof that the mother suffers from epileptic seizures, or her admission to intensive care for no less than three days, or the birth of twins or more, in which case it is dispensed for only one of them, or the mother&#8217;s infection with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or the mother suffering from a psychological or mental illness), which means that millions of eligible women will fall outside the system and lose the subsidy entirely. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>To read a report Zawia3 published on the decision: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/baby-formula\/\"><b>Egypt: cutting the infant formula subsidy puts poor families in crisis<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-08\" class=\"z3r-card z3p-sec\"><span class=\"z3r-kicker\">8<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"z3-article-separator\" role=\"separator\" aria-label=\"\u0641\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0628\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062c\u0632\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0642\u0627\u0644\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 140 4269 130\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M120 211H4149\" fill=\"none\" stroke=\"#7e7e7e\" stroke-width=\"10\"><\/path><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1718\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"1930\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2142\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2354\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"211\" r=\"56\" fill=\"#fafafa\" stroke=\"#9c9c9c\" stroke-width=\"3\"><\/circle><circle cx=\"2566\" cy=\"202\" r=\"50\" fill=\"#647580\" stroke=\"#4e5962\" stroke-width=\"4\"><\/circle><\/svg><\/div>\n<h2>8. Women&#x27;s rights<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11371\" src=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0631\u0623\u0629.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1878\" height=\"1056\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0631\u0623\u0629.png 1878w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0631\u0623\u0629-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0631\u0623\u0629-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0631\u0623\u0629-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0631\u0623\u0629-1536x864.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1878px) 100vw, 1878px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the first half of December, the Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality documented three killings of women and girls, two of whom were unidentified: one a young woman in her twenties in El-Basateen, whose body was found next to a rubbish bin; the second a woman thrown in a street in the Abu El-Nomros area of Giza; and the third crime was that of a girl no older than five, from a village belonging to Monshaat El-Qanater in Giza, who was found with her throat slit and thrown into a food waste dump. In all three crimes the perpetrator was unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the second half of December, the foundation <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=979594837383786&amp;id=100059998360720&amp;rdid=kbsPqHNU7rYDrZwS#\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">documented<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> four incidents of beating and torture that resulted in three deaths and one serious injury. In Beheira, two brothers beat their divorced sister and tortured her until they broke her neck, and after their arrest they claimed in the prosecution&#8217;s investigations that they had been disciplining her. In Gharbia, a wife jumped from the third floor to escape her husband, who had beaten her, leading to her being taken to hospital in a serious condition. In Toukh, Qalyubia, a husband beat his wife and set her on fire until she died. And in El-Maasara, an unemployed man beat his five-year-old niece to death because she wet herself involuntarily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=974416581234945&amp;id=100059998360720&amp;rdid=aj5wwzR2uFmDhZTC\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Edraak Foundation&#8217;s Violence Observatory for the first half of 2024, 34 women and girls were killed as a result of beating and torture, and 46 incidents of severe beating of women and girls were documented, resulting in bruises, fractures, burns and some temporary or permanent disabilities, including 30 incidents of beating by a family member. The bodies of 20 women and girls of unknown or known identity were also documented bearing signs of killing, by stabbing, hanging or torture, without the perpetrator&#8217;s identity being established. Strangulation ranked first among the methods most used to kill women and girls in Egypt, at approximately 22.3%, killing by stabbing came second at 21.3%, and in third place was beating that led to the victim&#8217;s death, accounting for 17.3% of cases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=881577954144760&amp;id=100068776894677&amp;rdid=5SDg4taxsleypSeK\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tadwein<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Foundation for Gender Studies condemned the killing of 18-year-old Amira, who had been married off before reaching the legal age to her maternal cousin, who killed her while she was pregnant by electrocuting her after tying her up with ropes, until she died, denouncing the two crimes of child marriage and murder and attributing this to a false logic and unjust social norms that endanger the lives of girls and women in our society by justifying violence and using it as a pretext for control.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The foundation, which works on women&#8217;s and gender issues, had concluded on 10 December, which coincides with International Human Rights Day, the activities of the 16 Days against violence against women, which came at the same time as the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Charter. Meanwhile, the Edraak Foundation for Development and Equality concluded its &#8220;Break the Mould&#8221; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=975000301176573&amp;id=100059998360720&amp;rdid=BLvcNvSIbeMksaaW\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to reject all forms of stereotyping that surround women on every side and place them in fixed moulds within a framework of prejudgements, which limits their abilities and their participation in the public and private spheres and deprives them of their fundamental rights and their powers over their lives, in addition to being one of the forms of violence against women.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cairo Foundation for Development and Law concluded the &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=918634887068019&amp;id=100067645492867&amp;rdid=fYJTvYBciQlnY4h3#\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate Justice for Women<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; campaign, which shed light on climate change and its negative effects on women, as rising temperatures lead to some crops no longer being grown, which affects dietary habits and female agricultural workers and causes them to be harmed by climate change. The campaign also documented an increase in cases of gender-based violence and child marriage, with the collapse of livelihoods and rising levels of tension, and the forms of violence to which women and girls are exposed because of climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Centre for Egyptian Women&#8217;s Legal Assistance launched a digital <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=998942602269583&amp;id=100064615574782&amp;rdid=DbR13Em0IcS92poM#\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the Beijing Platform for Action, issued in 1995, entitled &#8220;Beijing+30 and women are forgotten&#8221;, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Platform and as part of the local, regional and international reviews 30 years after the Platform was issued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Beijing Platform for Action is one of the important documents issued by the United Nations, and it was the culmination of four world conferences on women&#8217;s rights, which began in Mexico in 1975, followed by the Copenhagen conference in 1980, which for the first time recognised the rights of Palestinian women under occupation, then the Nairobi conference in 1985, up to the fourth conference in Beijing in 1995, which identified 12 critical areas concerning women&#8217;s rights: the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women, the education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, the human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment, and the girl child.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On another front, human rights organisations praised the positive move by the House of Representatives regarding the issues of female genital mutilation and child marriage, as the House, in its plenary session, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shorouknews.com\/news\/view.aspx?cdate=15122024&amp;id=dc12a351-7bd2-402f-8985-65e3e09bc38b\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">approved<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Article 34 of the draft Social Security and Cash Support Law, which provides for stopping support to beneficiary individuals if they are convicted of either of two crimes: female genital mutilation (&#8220;circumcision&#8221;) and child marriage. Although cases of child marriage continue in Egypt, no legal text criminalising it has yet been issued, as the current legal text criminalises the registration of a marriage contract for those under 18, and in cases where girls are married off in exchange for money, it is difficult to prove the crime of &#8220;human trafficking&#8221; so that parents can be punished for the crime of marrying off their daughters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Task Force against Female Genital Mutilation, which includes (the New Woman Foundation, the Tadwein Center for Gender Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Centre for Egyptian Women&#8217;s Legal Assistance, the Egyptian Women Lawyers Initiative, and the Specialised Union of Associations Working to Combat Harmful Practices against Women and Children), had submitted a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=999385618896865&amp;id=100064763080664&amp;rdid=YbCIQZuHUNgaDyMD\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the Administrative Prosecution and a complaint to the Doctors&#8217; Syndicate against Dr Ahmed Adel, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University, after he appeared in a video on the &#8220;Medicazone&#8221; page on the social media application Instagram containing false information inciting female genital mutilation, which constitutes a clear breach of Egyptian law, as the Penal Code provides, in the second paragraph of Article (242 bis A) of Law No. 10 of 2021 amending certain provisions of the Egyptian Penal Code regarding the penalty for the crime of female genital mutilation, that: &#8220;Anyone who promotes, encourages or calls, by one of the means set out in Article (171), for the commission of the crime of circumcising a female shall be punished by imprisonment, even if their act has no effect&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, the New Woman Foundation launched a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/100064763080664\/posts\/759252296243533\/?rdid=HpzMWslVDM0UTPO6#\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campaign <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">entitled &#8220;A unified demand, a unified law&#8221;, because <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%88%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%86%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A3%D8%AC%D9%84-%D8%A5%D8%B5%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%AF-%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B6%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%86%D9%81-%D8%B6%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">protecting women is a priority<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as part of the legislative protection project to confront violence against women, carried out in cooperation with the charity Diakonia, calling for the unified <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nwrcegypt.org\/%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%88%d8%ad%d8%af-%d9%84%d9%85%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%87%d8%b6%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%86%d9%81-%d8%b6%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%86%d8%b3%d8%a7\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to combat violence against women in Egypt to be passed in parliament, considering that the bill is in line with the national strategies to combat violence against women, the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women 2030, and the National Human Rights Strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The task force of feminist organisations submitted the unified bill to combat violence against women to the Egyptian parliament in its current session with MP Nashwa El-Deeb, and this is the second consecutive attempt to submit the bill, as the unified bill to combat violence against women had previously been submitted with MP Nadia Henry in the previous parliament.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking to Zawia3, <\/span><b>Nevine Ebeid<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, executive director of the New Woman Foundation, explains that &#8220;A unified demand, a unified law&#8221; is a campaign the foundation pushes periodically during the 16 Days against violence against women, with the aim of pushing for the adoption of the unified bill to combat violence against women. This year, a number of women MPs and political figures who support the bill, as well as a number of NGOs and community organisations in Assiut Governorate, took part in the campaign, and training workshops were held to raise sensitivity to gender issues, along with specialised sessions to raise awareness of the law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She believes that the need to adopt the unified bill to combat violence against women is growing amid rising rates of gender-based violence and femicides, explaining that the idea of the bill is not new and has existed at the National Council for Women and in NGOs for some time, and that a task force made up of seven feminist organisations, comprising (the New Woman Foundation, the Tadwein Center for Gender Studies, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Centre for Egyptian Women&#8217;s Legal Assistance, the Egyptian Women Lawyers Initiative, and the Specialised Union of Associations Working to Combat Harmful Practices against Women and Children), is pushing for the adoption of the law, which has been obstructed, like the personal status law and the criminalisation of early marriage, explaining that the Egyptian parliament suffers from legislative stalling when it comes to passing social laws.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<style>.z3-newsletter{width:100%;max-width:980px;direction:ltr;text-align:left;overflow-wrap:break-word} .z3-newsletter .z3n-figure{display:block;margin:18px auto 30px;max-width:900px;text-align:center} .z3-newsletter .z3n-figure img{display:block;width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto} .z3-newsletter h3{font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.5;margin:0 0 18px;font-weight:700} .z3-newsletter p{font-size:1em;line-height:1.85} .z3-newsletter .z3r-intro .z3r-lead{font-size:1.5em;line-height:1.5} .z3-newsletter .z3p-toc a{overflow-wrap:anywhere} .z3-newsletter .z3p-sec{scroll-margin-top:110px} @media(max-width:767px){.z3-newsletter 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organisations and political parties and 150 public figures called for the immediate and unconditional release of the poet Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16107],"tags":[],"kateb":[688,1550,728],"class_list":["post-16560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deleted-lines","kateb-ahmed-gamal-ziada","kateb-aya-yasser","kateb-shimaa-hamdy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/deleted-lines-2-cover.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16560"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25334,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560\/revisions\/25334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16560"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=16560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}