HUMAN RIGHTS IN

BACKGROUND

- Judiciary: Watch 2015 Report states that Egypt’s judiciary exhibited serious procedural deficiencies during 2014. These deficiencies deprived detainees of basic due process rights. Furthermore, many trials violated Egyptian law as well as international standards.

- Military trials: Egypt’s 2014 constitution permits military trials for civilians. On October 27, 2014, al-Sisi issued a decree expanding military court jurisdiction to cover crimes that occur on any public, state-owned, or “vital” property. Since the decree, prosecutors have referred at least 455 people—the vast majority of them members—to military court.

- Terrorism: An Egyptian insurgent group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, joined DAESH/ISIL. Some attacks targeted tourists or indiscriminately harmed ordinary citizens. At least 892 people— including militants, civilians and security forces—died in the governorate of North Sinai in 2014, according to press reports.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

- Mass Arrests: According to the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, more than 41,000 people were arrested or faced criminal charges between July 2013 and May 2014. Around 29,000 of those 41,000 arrested are Muslim Brotherhood members, including its high and mid-level leadership.

- Torture and Ill-Treatment: At least 90 people died in local police stations and security directorates in the governorates of and Giza alone in 2014, according to an investigation by the Egyptian newspaper Al Watan, which cited statistics from the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority. That number represented a 38 percent increase from the year before.

- , Expression, and Assembly:

 Freedom of expression: , academics, former lawmakers and human rights defenders were among those charged with crimes or banned from travel outside Egypt. Police arrested three English journalists, Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste, and Baher Mohamed, in late December 2013, and a court handed down multi-year prison sentences in June 2014 after a trial in which prosecutors failed to present any credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

 Freedom of association: Authorities banned the Muslim Brotherhood and declared it a terrorist organization in December 2013, following a bomb attack on a Delta police station claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis. Subsequently, Egyptian authorities froze the assets of more than 1,000 associations allegedly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, such as the Islamic Medical Association, which served residents of poor neighbourhoods, in addition to dozens of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated schools. Furthermore, in September 2014, al-Sisi signed an amendment to the penal code that mandates a life sentence and a fine of 500,000 Egyptian pounds (US$69,900) for anyone who takes foreign funding to harm the national “interest” or “unity,” a provision Egyptian rights activists fear will be used against them and other nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

 Freedom of Assembly: A November 2013 law on public assembly allowed the Interior Ministry to ban and forcefully disperse protests and arrest participants on vague grounds.

- Freedom of Religion: Egypt’s 2014 constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the rights of minorities, but authorities continued to prosecute writers and activists on charges of “contempt of religion” and “blasphemy,” including religious minorities and proclaimed atheists.

- Women: No law criminalizes domestic violence. Other forms of violence against women, including child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), continued in some areas, despite laws prohibiting them. On November 20, the country’s first trial for FGM, which began after a 13-year-old girl died from an allergic reaction to penicillin, ended in an acquittal for the girl’s father and the doctor who performed the procedure. The prosecutor appealed the acquittal. Personal status laws in Egypt continue to discriminate against women in relation to marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.

- Refugees: Egypt violated the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants within its borders. Syrians represent one of the largest refugee populations, with nearly 140,000 registered with the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Egypt prevented the UNHCR from registering Palestinians from Syria, and security officials maintained a restrictive visa and security clearance requirement enacted following the ouster of Morsi.