Egypt’s state-run National Council for Human Rights has acknowledged a disturbing pattern of torture, prolonged pretrial detention, and systematic media suppression in its newly released annual report—an admission that rights groups blasted as delayed, selective, and ultimately inadequate.
The council’s 18th report, published Sunday, spans the period from July 2024 to June 2025. It touts legislative reforms and presidential pardons as indicators of human rights progress, but simultaneously lays bare entrenched violations in detention centers and increasing assaults on press freedom.
While the council praised newly enacted laws on criminal procedures, labor, and asylum, it also flagged “serious and persistent” violations of public freedoms and the criminal justice system. Attempting to strike a “balanced” tone, the report applauds limited reforms while conceding that meaningful change remains elusive.
Deaths in custody and calls for torture law reform
The council cited the high-profile death of 28-year-old Mahmoud Mika, who died in March 2025 while held at Cairo’s Khalifa Police Station. His family accused officers of torture and medical negligence. The Interior Ministry denied all wrongdoing, instead attributing his death to “psychotic agitation” and related complications. The council called for a transparent, independent investigation into the incident—a demand still unmet.
The report also revealed it had received more than 200 formal complaints of torture and abuse inside prisons and police facilities during the reporting period. It urged parliament to amend Article 126 of Egypt’s penal code, calling for an expanded definition of torture that meets international standards — and the criminalization of all those who aid, attempt, or conspire in such acts.
Although the Interior Ministry and Public Prosecution continued to deny systemic violations, citing internal inquiries, the council stressed the need for credible, external investigations to rebuild public trust and ensure accountability.
Journalists and activists targeted
The report documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, including that of Al Manassa's political cartoonist Ashraf Omar, who was arrested in July 2024 on charges of “joining a terrorist group” and “spreading false information.” He remains in pretrial detention.
The council criticized the escalating use of “case rotation”— a practice in which detainees are re-accused in new cases to extend their incarceration — and highlighted the punitive blocking of news websites and ongoing harassment of independent journalists. It referenced repeated crackdowns on Mada Masr and Al Manassa, which has been blocked 13 times since 2022.
Spotlight on Hoda Abdel Moneim’s case
The report devoted particular attention to prominent rights lawyer and former council member Hoda Abdel Moneim, who is serving a five-year sentence in a state security case and simultaneously held in pretrial detention on new charges. A council delegation visited her at the 10th of Ramadan prison in May 2025, confirmed her medical treatment, and attended one of her court sessions.
But rights groups criticized the council’s actions as superficial and timid. Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Al Manassa, “they claim to have followed up on her case, but they didn’t even demand a direct meeting. Instead, they settled for reading her medical file—a baffling abdication of their legal mandate.”
Bahgat also condemned the council’s failure to publish comments on controversial laws covering asylum and criminal procedures, saying it had retreated behind closed doors, neutering its own advisory role. He pointed to the council’s previously unreported objection to increased court fees during a lawyers’ strike, “they stayed silent when it mattered most. What use is retroactive criticism after the damage is done?”
Mixed messaging on economic rights
The report welcomed new labor protections and rising social sector budgets, commending increased allocations to health and education. But Bahgat noted a glaring contradiction. The council admitted it had not evaluated whether those budgets met constitutional requirements—even as President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi acknowledged they had fallen short.
In a first, the council published its financial statements, revealing that its budget jumped to 75 million Egyptian pounds in the most recent fiscal year—up by 13 million from the year before. Bahgat slammed the expansion as unjustified given the council’s “minimal engagement with escalating violations and its muted response to urgent public grievances, especially regarding religious freedom.”
African and international scrutiny intensifies
In November, 22 Egyptian and international human rights organizations appealed to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to intervene in Egypt’s deepening rights crisis. Their joint statement urged the formation of an independent investigative body to probe abuses, deliver justice, and monitor compliance.
Earlier this year, 137 UN member states submitted over 370 recommendations during Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review before the Human Rights Council. These were consolidated into 343 key demands, covering torture, enforced disappearance, political imprisonment, defective legislation, and the persecution of media workers and activists.
