Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma are amongst the first Egyptian activists to be convicted on the basis of the new restrictive assembly law n°107-2013. On 22 December 2013, they were sentenced by the Abdeen Misdemeanour Appeals Court to three years of imprisonment for having allegedly "demonstrated without permission" and "assaulting the police" and are currently being unlawfully detained in Tora Prison. On 17 April 2014, Alkarama requested the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention to issue an opinion as to the arbitrary nature of the three activists' detention and to request the Egyptian authorities to put an end to the widening crackdown against activists targeted only for having exercised their right to freedom of expression and assembly.

Yesterday on 26 March 2014, Alkarama launched its public report "Impunity is not an option; Ensure accountability for mass killings in Egypt" which demonstrates, based on first-hand evidence, that the Egyptian authorities have failed to ensure accountability for the mass killings that have occurred in Egypt since the military takeover. Held in Geneva, the launch took place in the presence of Dr Mourad Dhina, Alkarama's Executive Director, Mrs Aya Ahmed, a activist working on women's rights in Egypt, and Mr Ahmed Al Bakri, Vice-President of the Egyptian Students Syndicate.

Ahmad El Shal, a young doctor and anti-coup activist reportedly abducted on 6 March 2014 by the Egyptian intelligence services reappeared in Al Aqrab prison 3 weeks later. He told his family that he was brutally tortured during his secret detention and forced to admit the murder of a police officer and the constitution of a terrorist cell. This new account along with recent reports of severe torture used in Egyptian detention centres against anti-coup activists confirms the severity of the repression against government's opponents. Today, Alkarama solicited the urgent intervention of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary detention with the Egyptian authorities on Ahmad's behalf.

Today, Alkarama submitted its report in view of the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Egypt, which will take place during the UPR Working Group's 20th session in October-November 2014. This review aims to assess the human rights record of all United Nations Member States every four years.

Egypt was reviewed by the Human Rights Council in 2010 in the framework of the first cycle (see Alkarama's first UPR report), during which it accepted numerous recommendations, including bringing its laws in line with international standards.