To mark International Women’s Day, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is publishing scenes from the lives of trans women as part of a series titled “They’re Women Too.” The stories’ aim is to spotlight the hardship experienced by trans women in Egypt.
Programs: Civil Liberties
The persistent legal harassment—the closure of the Nadeem Center will not be the last incident—will not deter Egyptian rights organizations from steadfastly exposing the current regime’s abuses and its violations of citizens’ fundamental human rights. We will continue to conduct research, monitor, and raise awareness in service of human rights principles and in defense of those victimized by draconian laws designed to forcefully shutdown the public sphere and all outlets for peaceful expression of opinion.
Parliament began to debate the bill and approved 40 of its 89 articles yesterday in record time. It is scheduled to resume debate on the remaining articles on November 15. We also condemn parliament’s treatment of civil society as an enemy to be defeated through secret plots and laws.
The EIPR found substantial discrepancies between the Arabic definition of female circumcision and the definition in all other languages on the WHO website.The Arabic definition lacks an important sentence affirming that there is no medical basis for the practice.
The undersigned organizations welcome the most recent amendments to the Penal Code to include a precise definition of the crime of female genital cutting (FGC) and extend the the statute of limitation to ten years. The organizations nevertheless stress that enforcement mechanisms remain lacking and that the amended provisions still allows doctors and medical institutions to evade punishment.
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the global alliance Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ) are again calling on the Egyptian legislator to amend legal provisions on abortion to guarantee women’s access to safe abortion in cases where pregnancy constitutes a threat to the woman’s life or health or if the pregnancy is the result of rape.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights affirmed today that it intended to continue defending rights and liberties and fighting to change public policies and security practices inimical to economic, social, civil, and political human rights, despite the continued state assault on all forms of civil association and initiative in Egypt over the last three years.
The prosecution of Egyptian NGO leaders on criminal charges related to their legitimate human rights work appears increasingly imminent.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights expresses its deep concern about the House of Representatives’ rushed approval of the law regulating the construction and renovation of churches.
As part of efforts by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights to promote freedom of religion and belief and associated rights—most significantly, to build and renovate churches and religious structures—it is launching a campaign titled “Closed on Security Grounds: for a Fair Law on Church Construction.”
