Human rights in Egypt

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Human rights in Egypt are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt under the various articles of Chapter 3. The country is also a party to numerous international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, the state of human rights in the country has been criticized both in the past and the present, especially by foreign human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.^[1] As of 2022, Human Rights Watch has declared that Egypt's human rights crises under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is "one of its worst ... in many decades", and that "tens of thousands of government critics, including journalists, peaceful activists, and human rights defenders, remain imprisoned on abusive 'terrorism' charges, many in lengthy pretrial detention."^[2] International human rights organizations, such as the aforementioned HRW and Amnesty International, have alleged that as of January 2020, there are some 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt.^[3] Other complaints made (by Human Rights Watch) are of authorities harassing and detaining "relatives of dissidents abroad" and use of "vague 'morality' charges to prosecute LGBT people, female social media influencers, and survivors of sexual violence."^[2] The Egyptian government has frequently rejected such criticism, denying that any of the prisoners it holds are political prisoners.

In Egypt's most recent presidential election, el-Sisi won 97% of the vote after "all credible challengers withdrew, citing personal decisions, political pressure, legal troubles, and unfair competition."^[4] In the 2020 parliamentary election, a "pro-government coalition" won an "overwhelming majority of seats" in Egypt's parliament. However, "domestic and international organizations" expressed concern that "government limitations on association, assembly, and expression severely constrained broad participation in the political process," according to the U.S. Department of State.^[4] A 2019 constitutional change also extended presidential terms from four to six years and permitted the current incumbent president to run for a third and final term (without otherwise tampering with the presidential two-term limit), thus hypothetically allowing him to remain president until 2030 if he were to win the 2023 presidential election.

The worst mass killing in Egypt's modern history occurred on 14 August 2013 during the dispersal by police of a sit-in held by supporters of the late Mohamed Morsi, where hundreds of protesters were killed.^[5]