General

Human Rights Watch World Report 2019: Egypt

Egypt’s international allies continue to support Egypt’s government and rarely offer public criticism. US President Donald Trump, during al-Sisi’s September visit to New York, said that al-Sisi has done “an outstanding job” in fighting terrorism.

In July, the Trump administration announced that it would reinstate Foreign Military Financing funds to Egypt after withholding some funds in August 2017 pending improving democracy and human rights benchmarks, which were not published. The funds were released despite the ongoing and worsening crackdown on human rights in Egypt.

In February, the European Parliament adopted a strongly-worded resolution against Egypt’s use of death penalty, which also criticized the country’s crackdown on human rights. In May, the European Union spokesperson decried the wave of arrest of human rights defenders in the country.

During the September session of the UN Human Rights Council, the EU expressed concerns over the situation of civil society in the country and about the new cybercrime and media laws.

Three years after the abduction, torture, and murder of the Italian PhD student, Giulio Regeni, in Cairo, prosecutors failed to charge anyone despite the government