Human Rights Organization Denounces The Act Of Torture In Egypt.

A coalition of six human rights groups on Monday, October 2nd, 2023, have said that the use of torture by the Egyptian authorities is so widespread and systematic, as to amount to a crime against humanity under customary international law. 

Mohammad Lotfy, the executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms said, "Torture has been used as a political tool to curtail dissent in Egypt's long-running practice of targeting human rights defenders, minorities, journalists, academics and opposition politicians." 

In a report presented by the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedom (ECRF), the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), REDRESS, a London based human rights organization and other human rights bodies to the United Nations Committee against torture, human right abuses, including beating, electrical shocks, sexual violence and denial of access to medical care were tracked. The report is coming ahead of the review of Egypt's record under the UN convention against torture, taking place on 14th and 15th of November, 2023.

Egypt's human rights violations, specifically the widespread use of torture by authorities, have been a recurring concern at the United Nations. The Committee Against Torture has conducted two investigations, in 1996 and 2017, confirming the systematic practice of torture in Egypt. Likewise in 2021, a collective statement by 32 countries was made at the UN Human Rights Council, highlighting the human rights crisis in Egypt. However, the situation has worsened for human rights defenders and activists.

Under the administration of former President Mubarak, who was in power for three decades, the practice of arbitrary arrests, torture, and other severe transgressions became normalized in the name of combatting terrorism. 

The State Security Investigations Service (SSIS) took actions to silence human rights organizations, suppress political adversaries, curtail the freedom of journalists, academics, and other individuals, and to impede the formation of religious and political groups.

In March 2023, experts from the United Nations Human Rights Committee examined the human rights situation in some countries including Egypt. The Committee called on Egypt to take various actions to address the widespread use of torture. The actions included conducting independent and effective investigations into the prosecutions of torture and disappearance cases, stopping the misuse of counter-terrorism measures against peaceful dissenters, and ensuring the safety of human rights defenders. 

Egypt was urged to uphold procedural safeguards against arbitrary deprivation of liberty, adherence to limits on pretrial detention and explore alternative measures to pretrial detention. The Committee further asked Egypt to review its current legal framework to ensure that the death penalty is never imposed in violation of fair trial guarantees and to seriously consider abolishing capital punishment.

Reacting to the precarious situation in Egypt, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Policy Relation Committee in the US, Ben Cardin has threatened to stop the military funding and aid in Egypt owing to the criticism of United States on the human rights torture in Egypt and its life threatening prison conditions. He further stated that, "This decision is a needed first step to hold the Egyptian regime accountable for its egregious human rights violations". 

A number of human rights organizations have reacted positively to this move by the United States.