Egypt: The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) Counter Terrorism

press release

Throughout the past decades the world went through a lot of costly hardships to establish a firm modern understanding of humanity, and a binding solid definition of human rights. By that, the preservation and maintenance of human rights have become a nonnegotiable must by any state that wishes to be an advanced respected actor in international circles. Never the less, despite the great achievements human rights are still subject to wide scale violations in many parts of the world, and violations are caused by several actors depending on the situation. The most terrifying of those actors who violate human rights on a global scale are extremist Islamist terrorist groups and organizations. It won't be an exaggeration if we say that terrorism is the greatest threat to human civilization in the 21st century. Therefor more concrete action has to be taken in order to repel this menacing threat. As one of the most prominent Human Rights Organizations in Egypt, EOHR issues this brief report in order to give an overview of terror in Egypt, and give recommendations to the international community on how to effectively curb the threat of terrorism. EOHR takes the chance to issue this report as world leaders are convening the United States in a summit on extremism, and hopes that the international community listens to the opinion of civil society on this extremely important subject. Egypt like many countries in the region suffers from a dark wave of terrorism that intensified after the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power after a massive popular uprising in the summer of 2013. Terrorism after the fall of Morsi started spreading to many parts of Egypt, before that it was largely confined to the Sinai Peninsula. Terrorist attacks in Egypt have killed hundreds of people over the past 20+ months. The attacks are indiscriminate as they target Police, Military personnel and civilians alike. Terrorist attacks also targeted the country's infrastructure, especially electricity transformers and pylons, as well as railway trains, and metro stations. EOHR has kept record of these attacks, and its Terrorism observatory has detailed reports on its website, and they document these attacks and the damage they have caused whether human or material. Using the Egyptian case as an example of a country that suffers from terrorism we can safely say that Terrorism violates the core principles of human rights; principles like the right to life, the right to personal security, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and other rights that are stipulated and guaranteed by international human rights treaties and conventions. What makes terrorism the most dangerous threat to human rights is, the moral conviction has regarding the crimes they commit, and the moral justifications for their horrendous acts. This is why terrorism is currently EOHR's biggest concern, as it happens to be the gravest threat to lives in Egypt.

EOHR has a few recommendations for the international community with regards to their counter terrorism efforts:

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