The first presentation was held at the European Union Delegation at the UN, allowing Alkarama to engage with the EU Member States. The second pre-session was organised by UPR Info, an NGO promoting the UPR. Amongst other NGOs taking part in this event, EACPE presented its recommendations regarding the rights of women, whilst CIVICUS, the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights focused on rights of freedom of association, expression, religion and art. Finally, the Egyptian Coalition for Children Rights spoke about children's rights in Egypt.

Practice of Torture and Ill-Treatment

During these meetings, one of the main points raised by Alkarama was in relation to the widespread use of torture by the Egyptian authorities. If the Egyptian Constitution criminalises this practice, its national legislation has not been modified since 2010, the year of Egypt's first examination, and thus still does not respect international norms in this field. In fact, numerous cases of torture and ill-treatment are not legally provided for by law, and, therefore, cannot be prosecuted. This is the case of all persons subject to torture, often target of retaliations or intimidations.

On the other hand, the authorities rarely open investigations after the reporting of such allegations, and many individuals are convicted on the basis of confessions extracted under torture. This practice affects not only men, but also women and children.

Cases of Arbitrary Detention

The Egyptian authorities have recently aggravated the provisions relating to detention, having initially agreed to cancel this legislation. As a consequence, individuals prosecuted for charges punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment can now see their detention renewed for 45 days, without any limit of time and without trial.

Many restrictions are placed on visits by lawyers, relatives and doctors, in violation of the right to fair trial. In addition, military courts may still, in some circumstances, try civilians, and cases of trials held in prison have also been reported. Finally, the possibility for defendants to challenge the legality of their detention is virtually impossible and complaints to the authorities remain without any response.

In detention like in police custody violence remains pervasive and has become almost systematic in the last year. Women and children are particularly vulnerable and many of them have reported sexual harassment, abuses and rape committed by other prisoners or by officials themselves.

Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial-executions

If these practices had decreased in the past, the last year has seen a strong resurgence of enforced disappearances and arbitrary executions. Political and human rights opponents have been abducted, while thousands of peaceful demonstrators have been arbitrarily executed by the authorities, who have made excessive use of force, using live ammunition to disperse demonstrations and sit-ins, as allowed by the law on demonstrations 107/2013. The Raba'a massacre is the most sinister example of this, especially because the authorities have never opened an independent investigation in this regard, despite the repeated calls from the international community.

Alkarama hope that Egypt will accept and implement the recommendations which will be addressed during its next review, on 5 November, so as to embark on the path towards better protection of human rights in the country.

About UPR

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a UN mechanism aiming to examine the human rights' situation in each of the UN Member States, by the Human Rights Council, and following a four-year cycle. The examinations consist of an interactive dialogue between the State under examination and the other UN Member States who, at the end of the process, the recommendations which the State under review can accept, reject, or postpone to a later date. The civil society can provide information that can be taken in consideration by Member States participating to the discussion. Egypt has been examined for the first time in February 2010.

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