Press Releases

27 June 2010

Foreign Policy - Egypt's Emergency Law Strikes Again

On June 6, a pair of police officers entered an Alexandria Internet cafe and began asking for the identification documents of everyone present. When 28-year-old Khaled Said objected to being searched without a warrant, the officers began to attack him, beating his head against a table and kicking him in the chest.

13 June 2010

Egypt: Rights Groups Expose Systemic Violations by Government Before UN Rights Council... Government Minister Pledges Mechanism to Monitor Implementation of UN Recommendations

(13 June, 2010)-  The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concluded its first review of the human rights situation in Egypt under the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism.

10 June 2010

With Live Updates from Geneva: EIPR Participates at UN Rights Council’s Consideration of Egypt’s UPR Final Report

The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) will hold a session tomorrow, 11 June, to consider the final report and recommendations on the human rights situation in Egypt. Earlier this year, the HRC discussed Egypt’s human rights record under its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, established in 2006 to assess the rights situation in all countries of the world.

10 June 2010

Pharmaceutical Companies Intervene in Support of the Government in the Drug Pricing Case... EIPR: price reductions for 40 drugs are not a result of the new pricing system; the minister’s decree is in the interest of business

On Monday, 7 June 2010, the Supreme Administrative Court heard the appeal filed by the Ministry of Health challenging a ruling from a lower court suspending work under the new drug pricing system. If implemented, the system established by Decree 373/2009 would have lead to a sharp increase in drug prices.

9 June 2010

Campaign to End the State of Emergency by Human Rights Organizations: Towards the Release of Detainees under the Emergency Law … Egypt without the Emergency Law

On Tuesday, 11 May, the Prime Minister announced in a speech to the People’s Assembly, “As it seeks a two-year extension of the Emergency Law, the government vows before the People’s Assembly not to employ the exceptional measures permitted by the Emergency Law except to confront the dangers of terrorism and drugs and to the degree necessary to confront them…The Emergency Law shall not be used to encroach on liberties or diminish rights…if the issue is not these two dangers…The

8 June 2010

After 80 Days of Detention: State Security Prosecutor Releases All Ahmadi Detainees... EIPR: Article 98(f) of the Penal Code must be abolished and an investigation launched into the torture of the detainees

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) welcomed the decision by the Supreme State Security Prosecutor yesterday, 7 June 2010, to release six citizens detained for more than 80 days because of their affiliation with the Ahmadi confession. The prosecutor’s decision came four days after a summary court judge issued an order releasing three other defendants in the same case.

19 May 2010

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.

14 May 2010

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.

12 May 2010

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.

27 April 2010

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.