Learning from HRDs: From a revolution to a military coup – The human rights situation in Egypt today

Thursday 16 November 2017, 11.30AM

Speaker: Mohamed Elbaker

The 25th January revolution in 2011 drastically changed the shape of human rights civil society in Egypt, enabling previously unthinkable opportunities for civil society actors. However, after the military coup in 2013 the human rights civil society struggled with several challenges related to basic freedoms, prisoners’ rights, enforced disappearances, criminal treatment of children, guarantees of fair trials, etc. Moreover, since then those civil society actors working on human rights in Egypt are struggling with the regime for their well-being, as the regime is targeting Egyptian human rights organisations and human rights defenders (HRDs) with different accusations. They have faced criminal charges, the regime has been monitoring their communications and movements, spread hate speech against them through media, prevented some founders and directors of human rights organisations from travelling, banned their personal and organisational bank accounts, and some of HRDs have been arrested by national security and military intelligence.

In his talk Mohamed will discuss the current human rights situation in Egypt, the risks civil society actors are facing, future challenges, and how HRDs and NGOs are dealing with these challenges.

Mohamed Elbaker is a Human Rights Defender from Egypt, he is working as a lawyer and he is the CEO of Adalah Center for Rights and Freedom (ACRF). He is currently undertaking a 6-month Protective Fellowship for Human Rights Defenders at Risk at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York.

Location: AEW/104, Alcuin East Wing, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD

Admission: Free