Crackdown in Cairo: What Can You Do?

Demand an End to Torture

Call an Egyptian embassy or consulate. (Go to http://www.mfa.gov.eg/missions_a.asp for a list.)

Or write to Egypt’s political leaders:

• Call for an immediate end to arrests and prosecutions for consensual homosexual conduct in Egypt.

• Insist on concrete measures to end the crime of torture in Egypt.

• Demand that officers found responsible for torture be punished.

• Urge that Taha Embaby, the head of Cairo’s Vice Squad—repeatedly accused of torturing gay men—be investigated for possible criminal conduct.

Demand International Accountability and Action

Egypt has been ruled under a state of emergency for most of the last three decades. The Emergency Law allows arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention without trial. It creates an atmosphere of repression and impunity in which torture flourishes. A renewal of the law was rammed through Egypt’s People’s Assembly in 2003. Lawmakers cited “anti-terrorist” legislation in the United States as a justification for continuing Egypt’s endless state of emergency.

• Call your member of Congress. Urge that the U.S. government raise Egypt’s human rights record, including persecution for homosexual conduct, in discussions with Egyptian officials and President Mubarak. Remind them that the United States’ own human rights record can be an example or an excuse for other countries engaging in repression. Urge them to oppose restrictions on human rights and civil liberties in the United States.

Other institutions have a role in ending torture and persecution in Egypt. Doctors at Egypt’s Forensic Medical Authority do nothing about the scars of torture on arrested men—but join in humiliating and brutalizing gay men further, by forcing them to undergo abusive anal examinations.

• Write to the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/about/contacthq/en/) and the World Medical Association (http://www.wma.net/e/contact.htm). Urge them to condemn the anal examinations conducted in Egypt, and the doctors who perform them.

Egypt’s crackdown isn’t just for local consumption. Since 2001, Egypt has used international conferences and meetings to campaign against sexual and reproductive rights. At some conferences, the U.S. administration has refused to defend basic human rights protections when they are under attack. This month, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights will debate a historic resolution on sexual orientation and human rights, sponsored by Brazil. The resolution would condemn horrifying abuses like those taking places in Cairo. Egypt’s government will fight hard against it. The United States may join the opponents, or abstain.

• Write, fax, or call the White House (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact). Urge President Bush to support the Brazil resolution on sexual orientation and human rights. Let him know that you will be watching the U.S.’s record on international human rights issues. Tell him to put the U.S. on record: torture and abuse based on sexual orientation or gender identity are wrong.

Find out more

• In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice In Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct
• Testimony from "In a Time of Torture"
• Human Rights Watch Work on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trangender Human Rights
• Human Rights in Egypt
• Video

(Last updated on March 12, 2004 )

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