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☆ Before hundreds of protesters were killed, Egypt debated less lethal options, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Cnn Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Official accounts put the death toll at around 600 people, including several members of the security forces. Protesters accused the state of carrying out a mass slaughter; authorities claimed heavily armed demonstrators had attacked police. According to EIPR’s report, investigators at the time also said that the “Egyptian administration was also wrong in its policy of dispersing the gathering.”CNN has reached out to the interior ministry for comment about the EIPR report. Police “incrementally used alarms and tear gas, and did not resort to live ammunition until after several of its (security forces) members were killed and injured,” the summary said. “This wound and all its victims need to be mended,” the EIPR report said, quoting the recommendations.

Persons: Rabaa, Mohamed Morsy, Abdel Fattah el, Morsy, EIPR, Hossam Bahgat, ” Bahgat, EIPR’s, Medhat, Minshawi, ” Al, Egypt’s, ”, Fouad Abdel, Moneim Riad, “, ” EIPR’s Bahgat, Bahgat Organizations: CNN, Adawya, Protesters, Egyptian, Personal Rights, Interior, Central Security Forces, Police, Rights Watch, UN Locations: Cairo, Egypt, ”

☆ Rights groups appeal for justice over 2013 Egypt sit-in killings
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A general view of Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, the site of a sit-in ending in clashes in 2013, in Cairo August 10, 2014. The clearing of the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in in Cairo on Aug. 14, 2013 marked the escalation of a crackdown against supporters of overthrown Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Mursi. Rights groups say more than 800 people were killed as security forces stormed Rabaa al-Adawiya, one of two squares in the capital where protesters had been camped out for weeks. Amnesty International said: "States with influence on Egypt must echo the demands of survivors, victims' families and human rights defenders for truth, justice and reparation." Supporters of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led Mursi's ouster as army chief and became president in 2014, say security measures taken at the time were needed to stabilise Egypt.

Persons: Rabaa, Mohamed Abd El Ghany, Mohamed Mursi, Abdel Fattah al, Mursi's, EIPR, Hossam Bahgat, Aidan Lewis, Sharon Singleton, Marguerita Choy Organizations: REUTERS, Muslim, Rights Watch, Amnesty, Egyptian, Personal Rights, Thomson Locations: Cairo, CAIRO, Egypt

☆ Blinken discusses Mideast tensions with Egypt's Sisi on first leg of tour
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (not pictured) in Cairo, Egypt January 30, 2023. After arriving in Cairo on Sunday, Blinken met four activists to discuss the human rights situation in Egypt, said Hossam Bahgat, one of those who took part in the meeting. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has withheld some military aid, citing a failure to meet human rights conditions, though advocacy groups have pushed for more to be held back. "He was already well aware of the magnitude of Egypt's human rights crisis and that many more new political prisoners are detained than those the regime claims to be pardoning," Bahgat told Reuters after meeting Blinken. "I think the Biden administration now accepts that two years of engaging Sisi on human rights have not led to much improvement."

☆ Curbs on rights weaken Egypt's climate talks, campaigners say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Dominic Evans | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/2] People walk outside of the Sharm El Sheikh International Convention Centre during the COP27 climate summit opening in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 6, 2022. Climate action "requires more people on the street, more voices, more independent research, more independent reporting, more accountability when climate obligations are not met," said Tirana Hassan, Human Rights Watch's acting Executive Director. "That's not going to happen under governments such as the Egyptian government which is excluding civil society, independent journalism and academia," she told a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh this week. Despite those criticisms some delegates argued that there was a benefit to holding the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh to shine a light briefly on Egypt's record. "This is a huge opportunity," Egyptian journalist and human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat said.

Abd El-Fattah was found guilty of spreading false information for sharing a Facebook post, a charge frequently used against activists and those of suspected of dissent. Abd El-Fattah has been on a hunger strike for more than 200 days and on Sunday stopped drinking water. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday said that he had raised the case of Abd El-Fattah while attending COP27. In January, Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath was freed following more than 900 days in detention after he renounced his Egyptian nationality. The only explanation his supporters have, Bahgat said, is that Abd El-Fattah was “one of the most prominent and influential voices” of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

View of a COP27 sign on the road leading to the conference area in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh town as the city prepares to host the COP27 summit next month, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt October 20, 2022. The Nov. 6-18 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh is the first annual U.N. climate conference to be held after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. CONCRETE BARRIERAnother concern among activists is the difficulty ordinary citizens may face accessing Sharm el-Sheikh. A petition led by 12 Egypt-focussed rights groups has called on Egypt to address restrictions on civil society, saying "effective climate action is not possible without open civic space". "Certainly we're very alive to the fact that Sharm el-Sheikh is an enclosed space, very controlled, very curated," she said.

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