Learning from HRDs: Defending the right to protest and to dignity in detention in Egypt

Speaker: Doaa Mostafa Hassan, CAHR visiting fellow, Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms

Doaa Mostafa is a lawyer and Criminal Justice Programme Director at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), an NGO that was established in 2013 and has quickly become one of the leading human rights organisations in the country. ECRF have led the campaign to Stop Enforced Disappearances in Egypt, a human rights violation that has increased dramatically over the past few years.

Doaa will discuss her work defending the rights of protesters, who are often arbitrarily detained by security forces, and many put through unfair trials. She works in a hostile environment where critical, independent NGOs are viewed by the government as enemies of the state, and in a country where gender biases are high. She is currently the only female lawyer working on enforced disappearances in Egypt. She is also involved in trial monitoring and has won cases defending freedom of assembly.

Doaa Mostafa Hassan is currently a visiting fellow at the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) under the auspices of the Protective Fellowship Scheme for HRDs at Risk. The Learning from HRDs lecture series showcases front line human rights work conducted by CAHR’s visiting human rights defenders.