Egypt: a decade of torture and impunity

The report presented at the 78th session of the Committee against Torture denounces the Egyptian authorities’ systematic practice of torture, including enforced disappearances, to impose repressive policies and coerce confessions.

Enforced disappearances have multiplied, targeting political opponents, journalists, human rights activists, and social media users. We counted 821 cases of enforced disappearance between August 2022 and August 2023, bringing the total number of cases documented since 2015 to 4,235.

The justice system encouraged the use of torture by failing to open independent investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in places of detention.

Egypt’s legal framework is a major obstacle to bringing torture cases to court. Despite the large number of cases of torture, other ill-treatment, and human rights violations, government officials are rarely held accountable, leaving victims without remedies and reparations.

The report was the work of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and its Egyptian partners, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the El-Nadeem Centre, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, the Committee for Justice and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, as well as other international organisations, the Danish Institute Against Torture (Dignity) and the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).

Read the full report to CAT on Egypt.