Human rights in Egypt: a brief dossier of a terrible humanitarian tragedy and the need to extend the criteria for granting refugee status and political asylum to refugees fleeing from Egypt.

Rome, October 12th, 2009. Italy, more than any other EU country at present, is guilty of violating refugee rights, failing to comply with the Geneva Convention, and is responsible for a terrible sequence (well-documented by human rights organizations) of crimes against humanity, crimes stigmatized by the international institutions but still not condemned in the courts for political diplomatic and economic reasons. With this brief dossier, EveryOne Group wishes to bring to the attention of the international institutions the procedures used by the Italian Government with Egyptian refugees, who are never granted refugee status or political asylum. It is a serious abuse to be added to the pushing back of refugees originating from other African countries and eastern Europe, to the criminalization of “illegal” immigrants, to racial persecution in the cities, to the inhumane and degrading treatment immigrants are subjected to in the Centres of Identification and Expulsion (CIE)  ( see: link 1 and link 2).

Concerning Egyptian refugees, Italy deports them back to Egypt without any qualms: men, women and children, who in the country they have fled from often meet their deaths or live in desperate situations. Last August, Roberto Maroni, the Italian Interior Minister and a member of the racist, xenophobic and anti-European Northern League Party, after deporting 75 people back to Egypt (including women, children and the sick) without even offering them the opportunity to apply for asylum, gave a statement to the press claiming that “Egyptians are not refugees and they have no right to asylum”. Amazingly, no one, except for EveryOne Group, issued a protest against this decision. link 3

Introduction: today the human rights situation has deteriorated and become dramatic. Over the last three years violations of people’s rights have increased in number, like the culture of repression, imprisonment and torture. Ethnic minorities are being persecuted, but those who flee from Egypt do so for serious reasons and risk, if repatriated, harsh sentences and a return to a situation of persecution or unbearable poverty - poverty, that in the present regime, as confirmed by many activists, puts people in dramatic conditions, deprived of human rights, social dignity or any hope of recovery.

EGYPT: Governmental report says human rights have deteriorated
From the Los Angeles Times: link 4

September 3, 2009 |  7:30 am

A report  by Egypt's National Council for Human Rights, or NCHR, said the state of human rights had deteriorated in the country over the last three years.
Among a number of critical issues raised in the council's report was the continued implementation of the emergency law since 1981, changes to the constitution, and the approval of a new anti-terror law that allows President Hosni Mubarak to order any suspect to stand trial before military and state security courts.
“We praised the government when it vowed to end the implementation of emergency rule in 2005,”  Hossam Badrawi, the head of the NCHR group, told The Times. “But rather than fulfilling their promise, they extended the law for two more years in 2008.”

The report, released Tuesday, covers human-rights practices in Egypt between 2006 and 2009 and has been sent to the United Nations in Geneva ahead of a discussion between Egypt and the U.N. in February 2010.
The report demands that the government cooperate with officials from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare police officers, detainees and Egyptian jurists for a time when the emergency law, imposed following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, would be lifted.
“We need to end the culture of torture within our prisons,” Badrawi told The Times. “Officers who violate human rights are put into question, but that is not enough. We need to end torture at its roots.”

Badrawi said that although there has been some progress since 2006 the regime needs to enforce its own rules. “We recognize the government's efforts in increasing the number of women candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections,” he said, “but such increase should be expanded to local councils.”
The NCHR recommendations are seen by Egyptian media as the first governmental report to call for reforms of the regime's human-rights practices.
Amro Hassan in Cairo

Human rights in Egypt 2009
The state of human rights in Egypt remain to be poor due to repressive government policies and brutal government crackdowns.

Rights and liberties ratings
Freedom House places Egypt's political rights at 6, civil liberties at 5, and an average of 5.5. This is an improvement, but it places them at unfree. Other nations in North African and the Mideast they place at 5.5 are Algeria, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and Tunisia. They gave them a press freedom score of 68, which is also unfree. They gave the following nations a 68 as well: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Maldives, and Russia. In 2000 the related Center for Religious Freedom placed Egypt as partly free at 5; this put them in line with Muslim nations like Turkey and Indonesia.[1] Reporters Without Borders placed Egypt between Bhutan and the Côte d'Ivoire in press freedom. The Heritage Foundation's index of economic freedom placed Egypt at a 1.65, this is equal to Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Cameroon, Azerbaijan, Albania, Lesotho, and Benin.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press
The Press Law, Publications Law, and the penal code regulate and govern the press. According to these, criticism of the president can be punished by fines or imprisonment. Freedom House deems Egypt to have an unfree press, although mentions they have a diversity of sources.[2]Reporters Without Borders 2006 report indicates continued harassment and, in three cases, imprisonment, of journalists.[3] They place Egypt 143rd out of 167 nations on press freedoms.[4] The two sources agree that promised reforms on the subject have been disappointingly slow or uneven in implementation. Freedomhouse had a slightly more positive assessment indicating that an increased freedom to discuss controversial issues has occurred.[5]
According to Al Jazeera.net, “in the past few years, independent Egyptian newspapers have emerged that have proved willing to hold the rich and powerful elite to account, right up to the presidency. The old state-owned newspapers are beginning to lose their readership.”[6] In July 2006, the Egyptian parliament passed a new press law. The new law no longer allows journalists to be imprisoned for comments against the government, but continues to allow fines to be levied against such journalists. The independent press and the Muslim Brotherhood protested this law as repressive.[6]
Although the Egyptian Government rarely bans foreign newspapers, in September 2006, Egypt banned editions of Le Figaro and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, because of their publication of articles deemed insulting to Islam. According to Al Jazeera, the German newspaper contained an article authored by the German historian Egon Flaig, “looking at how the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was a successful military leader during his lifetime”. Al Jazeera quotes the Egyptian minister of information as saying that he, “would not allow any publication that insults the Islamic religion or calls for hatred or contempt of any religion to be distributed inside Egypt.”[7]

Freedom of religion
Islam is the official state religion of Egypt. Practices conflicting with Islamic law, Sharia, are prohibited. The practice of Christianity or Judaism is not felt to conflict with Sharia. According to a 2003 US State Department report, “members of the non-Muslim minority worship without harassment.[8] The government has made efforts toward greater religious pluralism and Christians are a significant minority who have served in government. Coptic Christmas (January 7) has been a national holiday since 2002.

That said, intolerance at a cultural and political level remains according to two US-based sources.[9][5] Islam is the state religion and the government controls the major mosques. There have been disputes between Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria and the government. Christians have found the building and repair of churches, however, to be problematic. Government regulations dating from Ottoman times require non-Muslims to obtain presidential decrees before building or repair a place of worship. Although in 1999 President Mubarak issued a decree making repairs of all places of worship subject to a 1976 civil construction code, in practice Christians report difficulty obtaining permits.

Once permits have been obtained, Christians report being preventing from performing repairs or building by local authorities.[8]
Human Rights Watch also indicates issues of concern. For example they discuss how the law does not recognize conversion from Islam to other religions.[10] They also mention strict laws against insulting Islam, Christianity or Judaism and detention for unorthodox sects of Islam. In 1960,Bahá'í institutions and community activities were banned by Presidential decree of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. All Bahá'í community properties, including Bahá'í centers, libraries, and cemeteries, were subsequently confiscated. Bahá'ís are also not allowed to hold identity cards, and are thus, among other things, not able to own property, attend university, have a business, obtain birth, marriage and death certificates. This ban had not been rescinded as of 2003. In 2001 18 Egyptian Bahá'ís were arrested on “suspicion of insulting religion” and detained several months without being formally charged.[8]

On 6 April 2006, the Administrative Court ruled in favour of recognising the right of Egyptian Bahá'ís to have their religion acknowledged on official documents.”[11] However, on 15 May 2006, after a government appeal, the ruling was suspended by the Supreme Administrative Court.[12] On December 16, 2006, only after one hearing, the Supreme Administrative Council of Egypt ruled against the Bahá'ís and stating that the government may not recognize the Bahá'í Faith in official identification numbers.[13] The ruling left Bahá'ís unable to obtain the necessary government documents to have rights in their country unless they lie about their religion, which conflicts with Bahá'í religious principle.[14] Bahá'ís cannot obtain identification cards, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage or divorce certificates, or passports.[13] Without those documents, they could be employed, educated, treated in hospitals, or vote, among other things.[14] In 2008, a Cairo court ruled that Bahá'ís may obtain birth certificates and identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court documents.[15]

An Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity, Mohammed Beshoy Hegazy has recently sued the Egyptian government to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his official ID card. Earlier this year, Egyptian courts rejected an attempt by a group of Christians who had previously converted to Islam but then returned to Christianity and then sought to restore their original religion on their ID cards. The case is currently before an appeals court. [16]
See also: Persecution of Bahá'ís in Egypt and Egyptian identification card controversy

Status of religious and ethnic minorities
From December 31, 1999 to January 2, 2000, 21 Coptic Christians were killed by an angry mob in Al-Kosheh.[17] Al-Ahram in part cites economic resentment as the cause,[18] but discusses Muslims who condemned the action. A Coptic organization[19] saw it as a sign of official discrimination. In 2005 a riot against Copts occurred in Alexandria. According to a 2003 report, privately owned and (less frequently) government-owned newspapers publish anti-Semitic articles and editorials.[8]

Status of women
Domestic violence is not dealt with by many police in Egypt. Also family law is traditionally based on Sharia. The Ministry of Health issued a decree in 1996 declaring female circumcision unlawful and punishable under the Penal Code[20], and according to UNICEF the prevalence of women who have had this procedure has slowly declined from a baseline of 97% of women aged 15–49 since 1995.[21] According to a report in theBritish Medical Journal BMJ, “[t]he issue came to prominence...when the CNN television news channel broadcast a programme featuring a young girl being circumcised by a barber in Cairo. ...Shocked at the images shown worldwide, the Egyptian president was forced to agree to push legislation through the People's Assembly to ban the operation.[22]”. Despite the ban, the procedure continues to be practiced in Egypt[citation needed] and remains controversial. In 2006, Al-Azhar University lecturers Dr. Muhammad Wahdan and Dr. Malika Zarrar debated the topic in a televised debate.

Dr. Zarrar, who objected to the procedure, said...”Circumcision is always brutal...I consider this to be a crime, in terms of both religious and civil law”. Dr. Wahdan defended the partial removal of the clitoris for girls who Muslim doctors determine require it, saying it prevents sexual arousal in women in whom it would be inappropriate such as unmarried girls and spinsters. He cited Muslim custom, Islamic law, and a study reporting that the procedure is a determinant of chastity in Egyptian girls. He also blamed the controversy about the procedure on the fact that the, “West wants to impose its culture and philosophy on us.” [23]The ban was controversial in the medical community as well. In the debates leading up to the ban, a gynecologist at Cairo University, said that “Female circumcision is entrenched in Islamic life and teaching,” and, “called on the government to implement training programmes for doctors to carry out the operation under anaesthesia. Another doctor reportedly said, “If my daughter is not circumcised no man is going to marry her.” Other MDs opposed the ban stating that the, “trauma of the operation remains with the girl for the rest of her life,...”[disputing] the argument that the procedure prevents women from “moral deviation,” and argued that it is not, “a legitimate medical practice, and when it is conducted by untrained people it frequently results in infection and other medical problems...”[22]

Status of homosexuals
Homosexuality is not technically illegal in Egypt, but is considered taboo. Until recently, the government denied that homosexuality existed in Egypt, but recently official crackdowns have occurred for reasons felt to include the desire to appease Islamic clerics, to distract from economic issues, or as a cover-up for closet homosexuals in high places. In 2002, 52 men were rounded up on the Queen Boat, a floating nightclub, by police, where they were beaten and tortured. Eventually 29 were acquitted and 23 were convicted for “debauchery and defaming Islam” and sentenced for up to five years in prison with hard labor. Since the trial was held in a state security court, no appeal was allowed. A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, a political party rising in popularity in Egypt, condems homosexuality, saying, “From my religious view, all the religious people, in Christianity, in Judaism, condemn homosexuality,” he says. “It is against the whole sense in Egypt. The temper in Egypt is against homosexuality.”

A government spokesman said the Queen Boat incident was not a violation of human rights but, “actually an interpretation of the norms of our society, the family values of our society. And no one should judge us by their own values. And some of these values in the West are actually in decay.” [24]
In 2006, Human Rights Watch released a 144-page report called In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice in Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct. The report stated that “The detention and torture of hundreds of men reveals the fragility of legal protections for individual privacy and due process for all Egyptians.” Egyptian human rights organizations including the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, the Egyptian Association Against Torture, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Nadim Centre for the Psychological Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information also helped HRW to launch the report.

A spokesman for Human Rights Watch stated, “when we talk about the situation of homosexuals in Egypt, we don't describe the Queen Boat Case, but we describe a continuing practice of arresting and torturing gay men.” A Cairo court sentenced 21 men to prison in 2003 after it found them guilty of “habitual debauchery”, in a case named after the nightclub they were arrested in, the Queen Boat. He also pointed out that, under the pretext of medical exams, the Forensic Medical Authority contributed to the torture of the defendants.”[25]

According to a report in the Egyptian press, “the government accuses human rights groups of importing a Western agenda that offends local religious and cultural values. Rights groups deny this claim, but independent critics argue that it's not void of some truth. Citing the failure of these groups to create a grass-roots movement, critics point to “imported” issues such as female genital mutilation and gay rights as proof that many human rights groups have a Western agenda that seems more important than pressing issues that matter to ordinary Egyptians -- such as environmental, labour, housing and educational rights,” and says that the issues brought up at the press conference to launch the above report, “reminded some in the audience of US efforts to impose its own vision of democracy in Egypt as part of the US administration's plan for a Greater Middle East.”[25]

Conditions for detainees
In a 2005 report of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Human Rights chaired by former UN secretary-general and former Egyptian deputy prime minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali cites instances of torture of detainees in Egyptian prisons and describes the deaths while in custody of 9 individuals as, “regrettable violations of the right to life.” The report, “called for an end to [a] state of emergency, which has been in force since 1981, saying it provided a loophole by which the authorities prevent some Egyptians enjoying their right to personal security.”

According to an Al-Jazeera report, the council asked government departments to respond to complaints, but “The Interior Ministry, which runs the police force and the prisons, ..answered [only] three out of 75 torture allegations.” The council also recommended that President Hosni Mubarak, “issue a decree freeing detainees...in bad health.”[26]

References and footnotes
1) Reporters sans frontières - Egypt - Annual report 2006 - 2) freedomhouse.org: Freedom of the Press -3) Reporters sans frontières - Egypt - Annual report 2006 - 4) Reporters sans frontières - Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2005 - 5) a b freedomhouse.org: Country Report - 6) a b “Egypt approves tough press law”. AlJazeera.net. Monday 10 July 2006. - 7) “Two European papers face Egypt ban”. AlJazeera.net. Sunday 24 September 2006. - 8) a b c d International Religious Freedom Report 2002: Egypt - 9) United States Commission on International Religious Freedom: USCIRF Events: 2005 Testimony: Remarks by Commissioner Prodromou Briefing on “Religious Freedom in Egypt” - 10) Essential Background: Overview of human rights issues in Egypt (Human Rights Watch, 31-12-2004) - 11) Integrated Regional Information Networks (2006-04-06). “News Rights activists welcome ruling recognising Bahá'í rights”. IRINNews.org. Retrieved 2006-10-20. - 12) IRIN (2006-05-16). “EGYPT: Court suspends ruling recognising Bahai rights”. Reuters. Retrieved 2008-03-28. - 13) a b Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (2006-12-16). “Government Must Find Solution for Bahá'í Egyptians”. eipr.org. Retrieved 2006-12-16. - 14) a b “Congressional Human Rights Caucus, House of Representatives”. 2005-11-16. Retrieved 2006-12-29. - 15) Johnston, Cynthia (2008-01-29). “Egypt Baha'is win court fight over identity papers”. Reuters. Retrieved 2008-01-30. - 16) Threats force Egyptian convert to hide, MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer Sat August 11, [2] - 17) freedomhouse.org: Freedom of the Press - 18) Al-Ahram Weekly | Home News | The meanings of Al-Kosheh - 19) Al-Ahram Weekly | Home News | The meanings of Al-Kosheh - 20) Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): Legal Prohibitions Worldwide - 21) “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A statistical exploration”. UNICEF. November 2005. - 22) a b Peter Kandela (7 January 1995). “Egypt sees U turn on female circumcision”. bmj.com. - 23) “Egyptian Experts on Islamic Religious Law Debate Female Circumcision”. Kuwaiti Al-Rai TV translated into English by memritv.org. 28 March 2006. - 24) Egypt crackdown on homosexuals - 25) a b http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ Not just the Queen Boat: HRW is asking the Egyptian government to stop persecuting homosexuals and commit to reform] - 26) “Report on Egypt human rights critical”. Al-Jazeera.net. 10 April 2005.

Even the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which is used to judging states in which massacres and atrocities are committed, have condemned the repressive policies and violations of human rights taking place in Egypt, where even civilians can be judged before military courts and given harsh sentences, even capital punishment, the punishment for many crimes. http://www.fidh.org/

It is important to remember that there are many refugees living in Egypt who have fled from massacres and persecution but who are not recognised any rights. Even minorities are subjected to persecutory policies, while activists often operate at a risk to their own lives.

Human Rights Defenders in Egypt
From Human Rights First: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/

After a period of relative political openness from 2004-2005 that provided the Egyptian civil society and human rights movement with more space and freedom to conduct their activities, the situation of human rights defenders has suffered a serious setback since the spring of 2006. In May of that year, the Egyptian authorities launched acampaign of arrest and repression against Egyptian young bloggers who utilize the Internet to expose human rights violations and the widespread use of torture by the police in Egypt. The crackdown on the bloggers has been followed by a succession of repressive measures taken by the government in what appears to be a growing clampdown on the Egyptian independent human rights community.

In May 2007, State Security agents arrested Amr Tharwat, a researcher at the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies and the coordinator of its initiative to monitor the elections for the Shura Council (Egypt's upper house of Parliament) that took place over two rounds on June 11 and June 18, 2007. Tharwat had been detained for 130 days before he was released in October 2007. A few months later, human rights defenders Mohamed el-Derini and Ahmed Mohamed Sobh were arrested for speaking out to defend the rights of the small Shi’ite Muslim religious minority in Egypt, and for exposing and denouncing the use of torture in Egyptian prisons. Since their arrest, the two activists have been detained in solitary confinement at the Thorah prison near Cairo.

Human rights independent groups have also been targeted. In December 2006, the government shut down the Ahalina Center for Egyptian Family Support and Development, which provides legal aid and health and social services to the deprived inhabitants of the city of Shubra Al-Khayma. In April 2007, the Egyptian authorities closed down the headquarters and two branches of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS), an independent NGO that provides legal aid to workers and monitors the situation of labor rights in Egypt. In September 2007, the government issued a decree dissolving the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid (AHRLA). The decision to close down AHRLA is based on the alleged breaching of the Associations Law (Number 84 of 2002) that prohibits NGOs from receiving funding from abroad without the prior authorization of the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The closure of AHRLA appears to be in reprisal for its activities exposing human rights violations in Egypt and providing legal assistance to victims of torture.

Egypt Human Rights Violations: History of Torture in Egypt (2009)

Egypt Human Rights Violations of Terrorist Suspects Began in 1990s
by Amy Zalman, Ph.D.

1990s: Egypt Human Rights Violations of Terrorist Suspects Begin
Egypt has a consistent history of mistreating political prisoners, often in the name of fighting terrorism. Its targets in the 1990s were members of armed Islamist groups, who were committing acts of domestic terrorism, especially against the country's Coptic Christian population. Many of them belonged to one of two Egyptian groups, al Jihad Al Islami or Al Jama'a Islamiyya (Islamic Group).

According to reports issued by Amnesty International in the 1990s, abuses took place in the State Security Investigations Department (SSI) headquarters, as well as in other branches, policy stations and other locations. This included targeting female family members. As the Africa News Service reported in 1996:
“In our culture, the humiliation of a wife or mother or sister will break a man's back,” says Dr Aida Seif al Dowla, a psychiatrist from the Cairo Centre for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, who confirms that women related to Islamic activists have been tortured. Amal was arrested hours after police captured her husband, Ahmed al Sayid, who is now serving a 25-year sentence for an assassination attempt on Egypt's Minister of Information.

“In the beginning the interrogators were nice to me. They wanted me to appear on television to condemn my husband as a lunatic and wife-beater. When I refused, they turned ugly. “First they mocked me for wearing a veil. Then they blindfolded me, stripped me down to my underwear and hung me by my hands from a hook in the ceiling. There were at least seven men in the room and some of them were telling me how much they would enjoy raping me.

“As they taunted me, they whipped me with cable wire, kicked me in the stomach and sliced open my back with razors. This lasted for more than two hours. While I was in this room, I could hear my husband screaming in pain and shouting “Ya awlad al sharameet ana marafsh aya haga. [You sons of bitches, I don't know anything.]” It was obvious that they were torturing him.'
Domestic Terrorism Suspects Tortured Today: Taba Bombing Suspects Case
On November 30, 2006, 12 men were convicted in Egyptian court for their role in a terrorist bombing in Taba, 2004. Thirty four were killed in seaside resort attack. Two of the men were sentenced to death. All of the men claimed at trial that they had been tortured while in detention.

Muhammad Jayiz Sabah Hussein, one of the men sentenced to death, testified in court that he had been “blindfolded, bound, and unaware of his location,” and that State Security Officers had “hung him byhis arms and legs and used electrical currents to torture him…” to extract confessions from him before his trial, according to Human Rights Watch . Doctors confirmed at trial that Jayiz had bodily marks consistent with his claim of torture.
Egypt's Role in War on Terror Extraordinary Renditions
Egypt has been linked to extraordinary rendition, the practice of Western democracies of sending detainees to third-party countries for interrogation. Both the United States and the United Kingdom have sent terrorist suspects to Egypt for detention. “ In 2005, Egypt's prime minister acknowledged that since 2001 the USA had transferred some 60-70 detainees to Egypt as part of the “war on terror,” according to BBC News.

EveryOne Group has collected together numerous testimonies, in Italy, of people who have fled from Egypt due to situations of ethnic, religious or social persecution, or from inhuman conditions without any hope of survival.   That is why EveryOne Group, in line with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, ACHPR and other human rights organizations believe that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European institutions and the individual democratic states should never ignore the tragedy of human rights violations taking place in Egypt when evaluating the possibility of awarding refugee status, protection and asylum to refugees from Egypt.

Amnesty International published an up-to-date report in October 2009 concerning the violations of human rights, the lack of laws protecting the more vulnerable social groups and the repression of civil society in Egypt: http://www.amnesty.org/  |  http://www.amnestyusa.org/

The report of the U.S. Department of State - http://www.state.gov/

The report written up by EOHR, Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
http://en.eohr.org/

Finally, the news, increasingly tragic, concerning the fate of vulnerable social groups in Egypt: http://terrorism.about.com/   |   http://www.voanews.com/