Ongoing judicial harassment and restrictions to freedom of association faced by at least 37 Egyptian human rights defenders and organisations

The Observatory for the Protection ofHuman Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and the WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requestsyour urgent intervention in the following situation inEgypt.

New information:

The Observatory has beeninformed by reliable sources about the ongoing judicial harassment and therestrictions to freedom of association faced by at least 37 Egyptian humanrights defenders and organisations, including the Cairo Institute for HumanRights Studies (CIHRS) and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR),two member organisations of FIDH, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information(ANHRI), the Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC), Nazra for Feminist Studies, theEgyptian Centre for the Right to Education (CRE), as well as the ArabCenter for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP)and the Land Center for Human Rights (LCHR), two member organisations of OMCT.

According to informationreceived, on August 15, 2016, the Cairo Criminal Court in Zeinhom decided topostpone to September 17 the ruling on the asset freeze order targeting 11human rights defenders and family members within the framework of criminal caseNo. 173/2011, known as the “civil society case” (see Background information).The defendants include seven human rights defenders: Mr. Hossam Bahgat, founderof EIPR, Mr. Gamal Eid, Director of ANHRI, Mr. Moustafa El Hassan,Director of HMLC, Mr. Abdel Hafiz Tayel, Executive Director of CRE, Mr. BaheyEldin Hassan, Director of CIHRS, and two other CIHRS employees, as well asMr. Bahey Eldin Hassan and Mr. Gamal Eid’s respective wives and daughters.

These developments arethe latest escalation in a campaign of judicial harassment launched by theauthorities in 2011 targeting civil society organisations and human rightsdefenders in Egypt[1].

The Observatory urges the Egyptian authorities to immediately cease allacts of harassment against human rights organisations, and to comply with itsConstitution (in particular Article 78 and Article 93 which respectivelyrecognise freedom of association and Egypt's compliancewith international human rights conventions ratified by Egypt) as well as its international legalobligations (in particular Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civiland Political Rights (ICCPR)) and its international commitment to respectfreedom of association in the framework of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR)[2].

Background information:

Since 2011, the EgyptianGovernment has launched a judicial harassment campaign against civil societyorganisations on the pretext that they received unauthorised foreign fundingunder criminal case No. 173/2011, known as the “civil society case”.

The 2011 GovernmentFact-Finding Committee report, which formed the basis of the first trial in2012, listed 37 NGOs who could be targeted under this “civil society case”.That list included ACIJLP, CIHRS, LCHR, the Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA),HMLC, ANHRI, EIPR, El Nadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation ofVictims of Violence and Torture, the Egyptian Center for Economic and SocialRights (ECESR), the Arab Penal Reform Organization, the Egyptian Center for theRight to Education, El-Haq, the Egyptian Association for CommunityParticipation Enhancement (ACPE), Nazra for Feminist Studies, the AppropriateCommunications Technologies (ACT), among others.

The first set ofinvestigations targeted international and foreign NGOs. On June 4, 2013, theNorth Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 43 Egyptian and foreign staff members offive foreign civil society organisations to imprisonment ranging from one(suspended) to five years of prison for “managing unlicensed branches” of theirorganisations, “conducting research, political training, surveys, and workshopswithout licenses”, “training political parties and groups” and “illegally receivingforeign funding”. Though none of the defendants were forced to serve theirsentences either because they were abroad or in the case of the junior staffhad their sentences suspended, the court ordered the confiscation of theirfunds and the closure of Egypt-based branches of Freedom House, theInternational Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, theInternational Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), and Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The second part of the case targetsEgyptian civil society organisations that have received foreign orinternational funding. In July 2014, the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS)issued an ultimatum for Egyptian human rights organisations to register by late2014 under Law 84/2002 or face closure[3].

In September 2014, President Al-Sisisigned into law amendments to Article 78 of the Penal Code. These amendmentsinclude the provision that receiving foreign funding for the purpose of“harming national security” is punishable by life imprisonment.

In late 2014, the InvestigatingJudge in charge of the case appointed a technical committee from the MoSS[4] to determinewhether Egyptian organisations under review operate as civic associationswithout being registered as such under Law 84/2002, and to examine documents relatedto their sources of funding. The committee first examined the EDA. It is noteworthy to note that despite the EDA'sregistration in compliance with the ultimatum[5],they are still being investigated. In January 2015, the judge issuedtravel bans against Messrs. Hossam al-Din Ali, Chairman of the EDA, AhmedGhoneim, Deputy, as well as Ms. Israa Abdel Fattah and BassemSamir, who previously worked in the same organisation.

On June 9, 2015, the Investigating Judge mandated the technical committee to visit theCairo office of the CIHRS in order to examine whether the CIHRS engages inactivities of civic associations under the provisions of Law 84/2002. Thecommittee requested the staff present in the office to provide documentationrelating to the administration of the NGO, such as its registration, foundingcontract and statute, as well as the budgets, financial accounts, and fundingcontracts for the past four years. One additional demand the staff wereinstructed to comply with was to provide documentation that proved that theCIHRS was not conducting NGO work.

In July 2015, the HMLCwas also subjected to the same review.

In December 2015, theANHRI received a phone call from the technical committee, which asked toconduct an inspection, but due to the absence of Mr. Gamal Eid, the visit waspostponed and eventually did not take place.

In December 2015, theEgyptian Center for the Right to Education was summoned by the InvestigatingJudge for questioning.

On February 4, 2016,Mr. Gamal Eid was informed of atravel ban as he was attempting to travel outside Egypt. Mr. Hossam Bahgat was informed of asimilar ban on February 23, 2016; Mr. Mohamed Zaree, CIHRS Egypt Director, onMay 27, 2016; Ms. Hoda Abdel Wahab, ACIJLPExecutive Director, and Mr. Nasser Amin, ACIJLP President, onJune 20, 2016 and July 14, 2016 respectively; and Ms. Mozn Hassan, Founder and Executive Director of Nazra for FeministStudies, on June 27, 2016.

On March 13 and 14, 2016,two staff members of CIHRS and three staff members of Nazra for FeministStudies were notified by telephone of a summons to appear on March 16 beforethe Investigating Judge in Cairo within the framework of criminal case No.173/2011. However, the two staff members of CIHRS refused to appear, as theyhad not been properly notified in person in accordance with the law in force.Two former staff members of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance andAnti-Violence Studies and one accountant from the United Group were alsosummoned within the same context.

On March 17, Messrs.Hossam Bahgat and Gamal Eid were informed that the Investigative Judge hadordered the freezing of their assets and that their case would be reviewed bythe Cairo Criminal Court in Zeinhom on March 24, 2016. The case wassubsequently adjourned to April 20, 2016, upon request from the PublicProsecutor.

On April 19, Mr. Baheyeldin Hassan, two staff members of CIHRS, as well as Mr. Moustafa El Hassan,HMLC Director, were informed at 9pm through a phone call from the Egyptianpolice that they were summoned to appear before the Cairo Criminal Court inZeinhom on April 20, along with Messrs. Bahgat and Eid.

On April 20, the CairoCriminal Court in Zeinhom added seven defendants from three additional NGOs tothe “asset freeze order” initially targeting Messrs.Hossam Bahgat and Gamal Eid. The additionaldefendants are Mr. Bahey eldin Hassan, Mr. Moustafa El Hassan, Mr. Abdel Hafiz Tayel, two staff members of CIHRS, as well as of Mr.Bahey eldin Hassan's wife and daughter and Mr. Gamal Eid's wife and daughter[6].

The hearing by the CairoCriminal Court in Zeinhom regarding the asset freeze order was postponedseveral times by the prosecutors to review the evidence and formally summon thenew defendants. On May 23, 2016, it was again adjourned to July 17, 2016, andthen to August 15.

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities of Egyptasking them to:

i. Immediately put anend to investigations and criminal cases targeting NGOs as well as human rightsdefenders and their relatives;

ii. Put an end to allforms of harassment against all human rights organisations and defenders inEgypt, including travel bans;

iii. Revise the Law onAssociations to comply with international human rights standards and the UPRcommitments made by Egypt, while ensuring that independent civil societyorganisations are meaningfully consulted in the drafting process;

iv. Comply with all the provisions of theUnited Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in particular with its Articles 1, 5(a), 6(a), and 12.2;

v. Ensure in allcircumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordancewith international human rights standards and international instrumentsratified by Egypt.

Addresses:

· President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, H.E. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Fax:+202 23901998

· Prime Minister of Egypt, Mr. Sherif Ismail, Fax: + 202 2735 6449 /27958016. Email: primemin@idsc.gov.eg

· Minister of the Interior of Egypt, Mr. Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, E-mail: moi1@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 2579 2031 / 27945529

· Minister of Justice of Egypt, Mr. Mohamed Hossam Abdel-Rehim, E-mail: mojeb@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 2795 8103

· Public Prosecutor, Fax: +202 2577 4716

· President of the National Council For Human Rights, Mr. Mohamed Fayeq,Fax: + 202 25747497 / 25747670. Email: nchr@nchr.org.eg

· H.E. Ms. Wafaa Bassim,Ambassador, PermanentMission of Egypt to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Email: mission.egypt@ties.itu.int, Fax: +41 22 738 44 15

· Embassy of Egypt in Brussels, Belgium, Fax: +32 2675.58.88; Email: embassy.egypt@skynet.be

Please also write to the diplomatic missionsor embassies of Egypt in your respective country.

***

Paris-Geneva, August 29, 2016

Kindly inform us of any action undertakenquoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory forthe Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in1997 by FIDH and OMCT. The objective of this programme is to intervene toprevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDHand OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented byinternational civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call theemergency line:

· E-mail: Appeals[at]fidh-omct.org

· Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 4939 / + 41 22 809 49 29

· Teland fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

[1] The investigation started in September 2011, and the raid on NGOstook place in December 2011. As the investigation has been ongoing for nearlyfive years, the scope of the case remains unknown. For more information, pleasesee: http://www.cihrs.org/?p=720&lang=en& http://www.cihrs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/The-Complaint.pdf

[2] At the occasion of the UPR of Egypt in November 2014, the Egyptianauthorities accepted at least five recommendations on the protection of humanrights defenders, including a commitment to reforming the current NGO law witha wide consultation of NGOs, and a commitment to guarantee the right to freedomof association in accordance with international standards.

[3] The ultimatum was made public in July 2014, and in September 2014,the deadline was pushed back to November 10, 2014.

[4] The committee is composed of Ministry of Social Solidarity officialsbut they report to the Investigating Judge.

[5] The EDA has been registered under the AssociationsLaw No. 84/2002 since September 2014.

[6] Mr. Bahgat attended the April-20 hearing, while the other defendantswere represented by their lawyers. No formal charges were confirmed on thatoccasion.