Human Righs Watch online publications may help our students. Some are available in Arabic and English.
Reports for Egypt include:
Reading between the “Red Lines” The Repression of Academic Freedom in Egyptian Universities
This report details ongoing government restrictions on classroom discussions, research projects, student activities, campus demonstrations and university governance. The report addresses conditions in public institutions including Cairo, Alexandria, `Ain Shams, and Hilwan Universities, and private institutions like the American University in Cairo.
Egypt: Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai
This 48-page report documents how, in the weeks and months after the bombing that killed 30 people in the resort town of Taba, the State Security Investigation agency conducted mass arrests in northern Sinai without a warrant or judicial order as required by Egyptian law.
HRW Index No.: E1703
February 22, 2005
Also available in Arabic
Divorced from Justice
Women’s Unequal Access to Divorce in Egypt
This 62-page report documents serious human rights abuses stemming from discriminatory family laws that have resulted in a divorce system that affords separate and unequal treatment to men and women.
HRW Index No.: E1608
December 1, 2004
Also available in Arabic
Empty Promises
Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard Against Torture
Individuals suspected of terrorism should never be returned to a country where they risk torture and ill-treatment. Promises of fair treatment by states with well-known records of torture are inherently unreliable, and governments that justify returns through such promises, known as “diplomatic assurances,” are violating the absolute prohibition against torture and eroding a fundamental principle of international law. The death penalty, however reprehensible, is legal and usually carried out publicly. But torture is illegal and practiced in secret. Governments routinely lie about whether they’re torturing people or not, and in some situations they may not even have adequate control to guarantee security. This 39-page report documents cases where governments returned or considered returning suspects on the basis of such formal guarantees, and raises concern that in some cases, those returned were, in fact, tortured or ill-treated.
HRW Index No.: D1604
April 15, 2004
In a Time of Torture
The Assault on Justice in Egypt's Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct
This 144-page report documents the government’s increasing repression of men who have sex with men. The trial of 52 men in 2001 for the “habitual practice of debauchery”—the legal charge used to criminalize homosexual conduct in Egyptian law—was only the most visible point in the ongoing and expanding crackdown. Today, Egyptian police use wiretaps and a growing web of informers to conduct raids on private homes or seize suspects on the street. Undercover police agents arrange meetings with men through chat rooms and personal advertisements on the Internet—and then arrest them.
HRW Index No.: 1564322963
March 1, 2004
Security Forces Abuse of Anti-War Demonstrators
Egypt should investigate and discipline police and plainclothes security officials who beat demonstrators protesting the Iraq war and tortured some of those detained. In this 40-page report, Human Rights Watch documents excessive use of force by security forces to disperse demonstrators protesting the U.S.-led war against Iraq in March, violating their right to freedom of assembly. After arresting hundreds of protesters, police then beat and mistreated many detainees, some to the point of torture, and failed to provide medical care to persons seriously injured. Human Rights Watch calls on the government to dismiss charges against persons detained solely for attempting to exercise their right of free assembly.
HRW Index No.: E1510
November 7, 2003