Press Release
Published on August 2, 2017
Washington, D.C.—Human Rights First today released a new report detailing the severe crackdown on peaceful dissent and nongovernmental organizations in Egypt under the Sisi government. In the report the organization urges Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to withhold military aid to Egypt until it meets human rights conditions, and comes as Congress reviews its military aid package to Egypt in the FY 2018 appropriation. “How to Protect Civil Society and Promote Stability in Egypt” draws on dozens of interviews conducted in July with Egyptian human rights defenders, civil society activists, foreign diplomats, and others.
“As long as Egyptian authorities suppress peaceful dissent, they are part of the problem of growing instability, not part of the solution,” said the report’s author, Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “Enforced disappearances, torture and mass jailing fuel extremism. The U.S. government needs to persuade its allies in Cairo to get off this dangerous path fast. Friends don’t let friends foster terrorism.”
Since President Sisi seized power in a popular coup in 2013, his government has targeted peaceful critics, religious minorities, human rights defenders, and nongovernmental organizations. President Sisi recently ratified a draconian law restricting the work of NGOs, essentially making it a crime to advocate for human rights and development.
Egypt has sided with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates against Qatar in the ongoing diplomatic crisis seizing the Gulf region, further complicating the Trump Administration’s relationship with Egyptian government.
Human Rights First’s research trip was a rare occurrence, as the Egyptian government has for the last three years routinely denied international human rights organizations access to the country.
Today’s report offers specific recommendations for the Trump Administration and Congress to protect civil society and religious freedom in Egypt, and to fight extremism, including: