Joint Report on the Targeting of Egyptian Human Rights Defenders in the Diaspora:
Years of Persecution, Reprisals, and Deprivation of Basic Citizenship Rights
Press Release
The Egyptian Human Rights Forum and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights stated in a joint report released today that Egyptian authorities continue to target and intimidate human rights defenders (HRDs) in the diaspora in an attempt to silence them and end their legitimate activities. The report reveals patterns of targeting human rights activists abroad, which include issuing prison sentences in absentia, launching investigations, and bringing politically motivated charges against some in relation to their peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The tactics also involve the arbitrary deprivation of consular services, such as the denial of national ID cards, birth certificates for them and their children, and the renewal of Egyptian passports. Additionally, the report highlights the freezing of the civil registry status of prominent HRDs within Egypt to deprive them of their identification documents, placing human rights defenders residing abroad on terrorism lists, intimidating their family members living in Egypt, tracking and monitoring the activities of rights defenders in their countries of residence, and targeting activists and their organizations digitally through surveillance and spyware programs.
The report, titled “Transnational Repression: Targeting Egyptian Human Rights Defenders Abroad“, documents the official security and political strategy that has targeted the Egyptian human rights movement since the end of 2013. This strategy has led to the restriction of independent human rights activism within Egypt and repressing human rights defenders beyond the country’s borders, affecting the families of the members of the HRDs. The report is based on a series of interviews with a sample of Egyptian activists and HRDs who were forced to leave Egypt between 2017 and 2020 and are currently residing in the EU, the US, Qatar and Turkey.
Over the last decade, public figures and HRDs have increasingly fled Egypt for other parts in the world, This has been a result of the widespread human rights violations within the country, including long-term arbitrary detention, politically motivated prosecutions, torture, and enforced disappearances, as well as the search for safe havens where they can continue their mission to halt the repression in Egypt, with greater freedom and safety. However, the unprecedented wave of exodus that began in the summer of 2013 has proven that leaving Egypt does not protect defenders or their families. They continue to suffer from persecution, targeting, and tracking, with relentless official efforts to extradite them to Egypt to continue the policies of repression and persecution, and to silence their dissenting voices regarding the human rights situation in the country. The reprisals adopted by the Egyptian authorities against HRDs abroad have included founders and members of the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, as well as members of their families residing in Egypt. The Egyptian Human Rights Forum was founded in April 2018 and includes several HRDs who contributed for years to advancing human rights in Egypt but were forced to continue their work from abroad.
The report calls on Egyptian authorities to take several measures, including:
- Terminate any pending cases or charges against human rights defenders and organizations, and formally commit to refraining from any security or judicial harassment. Additionally, halt ongoing smear and defamation campaigns against HRDs.
- Work towards annulling politically motivated in absentia convictions against HRDs in exile, and allow charged HRDs, both within and outside Egypt, to legally access their case files and any ongoing investigations if they exist.
- Remove HRDs from terrorism lists and immediately cease any legal consequences arising from their inclusion on these lists. And stop the repeated summoning of HRDs to National Security offices, where they are interrogated about their activities both within and outside of Egypt, with the intent of intimidation and information gathering.
- Immediately cease the arbitrary withholding of official documents and identification papers, and ensure the provision of essential consular services to HRDs, all Egyptians abroad, their children, and families. Uphold the right of return for exiled HRDs and political activists without subjecting them to security harassment or legal prosecution, and without conditioning their return on concessions or restrictions on their work.
The Egyptian Human Rights Forum and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights appeal to the international community and Egypt’s international partners, particularly the European Union and the United States, to:
- Integrate tangible progress in human rights policies and the improvement of the conditions and security of HRDs into any bilateral talks related to financial, security, and military assistance provided to the Egyptian authorities.
- Ensure that spyware and surveillance technology, imported from companies operating within the European Union and the United States, are not used to violate human rights and target human rights defenders.
- Pressure the Egyptian authorities to launch a formal initiative to resolve the legal cases and pending charges against human rights defenders who have been forced to leave the country.
- Encourage host countries of human rights defenders, particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa, not to comply with Egyptian requests for the extradition of these individuals, and ensure that host countries commit to providing as much legal and security protection as possible to resident defenders to protect them from persecution and harassment while in exile.