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.
Programs: Civil Liberties
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.”
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights believes that these measures amount to a government assault not only on civil society organizations working in defense of human rights but on all democratic, voluntary forums and activity in society.
“The government has failed to deal with the issue of Christian-Muslim relations and sectarian attacks due to the dominance of a purely security mentality,” said Ishak Ibrahim
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights issued an analytical report today titled “Restricted Diversity in State Religion: The Case of Religious Freedom of Shia Egyptians.” The report documents and analyzes developments
