The Egyptian Working Group for Human Rights has said that the human rights situation in Egypt has not witnessed tangible improvements. On the contrary, it added, human rights violations are systematically escalating. The group was formed in 2018 by local and international human rights organisations. The group added that this month it sent a report to the United Nations on the dire human rights situation in the country.

The report shows how the human rights crisis continues in Egypt, presenting examples of rights violations from November 2019 to November 2022, mainly about freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, media independence, and women’s rights. The group also said that the authorities continue and expand the issuance of death sentences against the backdrop of grossly unfair trials and that torture is systematically practised in places of detention, with complete impunity for its perpetrators.

Enforced disappearance continues as a systematic practice, and journalists, peaceful political opponents, and even non-political citizens continue to be arbitrarily imprisoned for indefinite periods, it added. Also, human rights activists are subjected to retaliatory imprisonment, torture, travel bans, and asset freezes. Finally, the group said that the government’s talk of improving the human rights situation in the country had yet to yield any tangible results.