Close to 2 000 pro-democracy activists have been arrested in Egypt during the recent protests demanding the resignation of President el-Sisi. Peaceful protesters have been detained and several protesters’ locations are still being withheld from the public by Egyptian authorities.
The Chair of Liberal International’s Human Rights Committee, Astrid Thors (SFP, Finland), strongly urges that the locations of the missing pro-democracy protesters are revealed and that the detained protesters are released immediately. Thors also calls for the unfair charges against the human rights defenders, media workers, opposition party members and other protesters to be dropped.
In addition to the restriction of protests, the Egyptian government has also blocked several media outlets as well as restricted access to civilians’ messaging applications. By doing so, the government has committed serious violations on both journalists’ and civilians’ rights to freedom of the press, freedom of expression and freedom to access information.
Thors stresses the importance of the Egyptian government to not repeat a similar crackdown, but instead enable people to express their right to protest. The freedom of assembly and the freedom of expression are fundamental human rights which need to be safeguarded in all parts of the world.
