Human rights in Egypt after 2013: between legal provisions and practical problems

Summary

The human rights and freedoms are among the basic elements on which democratic systems are based. These rights have received wide-range attention in contemporary history in light of the extension of guarantees for their protection internationally, regionally and locally under international charters and internal legislation, with the aim of achieving the main goals and objectives of building a state with sound democratic foundations under the values ​​and principles of freedom, justice, and the rule of law.

The Arab region has witnessed revolutions and protests in order to achieve a democratic transition based on respect of the values ​​of rights and freedoms, but unfortunately this was not achieved in the presence of a real crisis experienced by regional countries due to absence of a democratic culture, and the monopoly of power by the military.

Based on this, Egypt has been witnessing serious human rights violations and repression of basic freedoms since the 3 July 2013 coup d’etat, where Egyptians who reject the hegemony of military rule have been exposed to countless killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and unfair trials.

The central reason for the widespread occurrence of these grave violations is the nature of the Sisi military regime, which used repression to intimidate Egyptians across their political spectra and tighten its security grip on them, to prevent them from demanding their rights advocated in the January Revolution, most prominently to free Egypt from the grip of military tyranny and transform it into a civil and democratic state.