Protest outside Parliament to Demand Increased Health Spending
The Committee for the Defense of the Right to Health, a coalition of activists and organizations including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and the Doctors Without Rights Committee, organized a protest yesterday, Thursday 18 May, in front of the People’s Assembly to protest the meager health allocations in the 2010-11 state budget. Health spending in the budget accounts for 4.9% of total public expenditure and 1.4% of the GDP.
Egyptian Government Urged to Immediately Release Detained Egyptian Ahmadis… Emergency Law Used To Detain Citizens For Two Months Because Of Their Religious Beliefs
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) today urged the Minister of Interior to release immediately nine Egyptians detained under the Emergency Law for two months because of their affiliation with the Ahmadi confession.
Twenty-Nine Years of Lies...And Now Two More Years
The Egyptian government is often forced to recognize past abuses in the course of putting a pretty face on future ones, as aptly illustrated by a presidential decree issued on May 11 that extended the State of Emergency for another two years.
Court of Administrative Justice Suspends New Drug-Pricing System… EIPR: the Ruling Stops the Violation of Citizens’ Right to Health & Life and The Government Must Implement It Immediately
The Court of Administrative Justice today issued a ruling suspending work under the new drug-pricing system, which tied drug prices in Egypt with global prices. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) filed an urgent lawsuit (no. 2457/64) on 22 October 2009 asking the court to suspend Health Minister Decree 373/2009, which would have entailed substantial price hikes for many kinds of drugs.
Indonesia: Court Decision Upholding “Defamation of Religions” Laws is Major Setback
On Monday 19 April, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court upheld the country’s controversial laws on “defamation of religions” or blasphemy. The legal provisions, which impose criminal penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment on individuals or groups that “deviate” from the basic teachings of the official religions, seriously threaten the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of thought, conscience and religion in Indonesia, especially in relation to minority groups.
EIPR Issues Analytic Study of Sectarian Violence over Last Two Years…53 Incidents in 17 Governorates: 14 Cases of Collective Retribution; 17 Clashes Escalate to Sectarian Violence; 7 Attacks on Churches
On 11 April, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) issued an analytical study titled “Two Years of Sectarian Violence: What Happened? Where Do We Begin?” The study details the expanding geographic scope and increasing frequency of incidents of sectarian violence over the last two years, as well as the state’s failure to deal with the problem.
Crackdown on April 6 Protests: A Step on the Road to Confiscating the Right of Egyptians to Choose Who Governs Them
The Forum of Independent Human Rights Organizations strongly condemns the vicious repression by the Egyptian security apparatus of peaceful protestors on April 6 which turned Cairo into a military barracks.
Press Conference Invitation to release EIPR New Study: Sectarian Violence in Two Years: What Have We Learned?
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) is holding a press conference to release its new study Sectarian Violence in Two Years: What Have We Learned?. The study presents a brief analysis of incidents of sectarian violence investigated and documented by the EIPR between January 2008 and January 2010.
One Year After Sectarian Attacks on Baha’is in Shuraniya: No Accountability for Inciters or Assailants; No Justice for Displaced Baha’i Families
One year after the criminal attacks on Egyptian Baha’is in the village of Shuraniya in Sohag, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) expressed its disappointment at the Public Prosecutor’s failure to bring the assailants and those who incited the attacks to justice. For one full year, state authorities have yet to bring justice to the victims of the attacks or enable Baha’is forcibly removed from their homes to return.
Limiting State-Funded Treatment to Six Illnesses Threatens Patients’ Lives...Minister’s Office and Specialized Medical Councils: We Know Nothing About this Decree
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights warned today that the lives of patients receiving treatment at state expense were under threat after the state-owned al-Ahram reported yesterday, 29 March, that the Minister of Health had issued a decree to limit state-funded treatment to six illnesses: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high-blood pressure, renal failure, and Hepatitis C patients receiving interferon.