6 Aug 2017

Egypt’s Payroll Is Fine, but Its Revenues Are Too Low.

Throughout June, the Egyptian cabinet and parliament debated a budget for the 2017–18 fiscal year, which began on July 1. The budget has been referred to in Egypt as the “IMF budget” due to the number of restrictions in an austerity program imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF—which approved a $12 billion package of loans in November 2016, in exchange for a number of reforms—aims to reduce Egypt’s public spending from around 30 percent of its gross domestic product to below 23 percent by 2021, with one-sixth of those cuts coming from the public payroll

Case Study: Environmental Justice Map - Wadi Al-Qamar

For many years, the residents practiced many forms of peaceful protests against the factory. They wrote petitions, filed complaints, held negotiations with factory officials, talked about their cause in the media, used social media, produced documentary films, and even conducted researches and proposed alternatives.

Video: Wadi al-Qamar residents capture emissions from Titan’s Alexandria Portland Cement, and the Egyptian initiative comments on the company's response

Residents of Wadi al-Qamar have recently posted a video, dated 18 May 2017, on Facebook, which depicts very large emissions coming out of a chimney of the Alexandria Portland Cement’s plant (APCC), which is adjacent to their homes. APCC is a subsidiary of TITAN Cement Group, a multinational cement and building materials producing company, based in Greece. Residents of the area have been complaining for years about the environmental pollution caused by the plant and the harmful effects it has had on their health and the health of their children.

21 May 2017

Laborious work at minimum subsistence - Article featuring the findings of the Arab Watch Report in Egypt

He is a “tuk tuk” driver in his mid-30s working from 10am to 9pm, seven days a week, on a small cart he bought eight years ago. He paid for this cart using a loan and after receiving his share of the remuneration that was earned during his work with his father. When the vehicle use to crash, which has happened very often during the last three years, he had to spend days at home in order to repair it. This means that his family had, for these days, nothing to eat except for what was offered by some family members and neighbors.

14 Mar 2017

FDI Isn’t Enough for Egypt

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC), an event hyped by the Egyptian government and business community in an effort to restore trust in Egypt’s economy and bring in much-needed foreign cash. Since the conference, foreign direct investment (FDI) has indeed increased, but that does not necessarily bring good news to the unemployed and wage earners.

14 Dec 2016

How can Egypt prevent another pre-Christmas bombing?

Sectarian tension and violence continued in the years that followed, although the direct targeting of churches declined up until the massacre at All Saints Church at the beginning of 2011, in which 25 people died. In November 2013, assailants opened fire on a group of Copts in front of St. Mary Church in Waraq.The nature of these attacks has become more frightening as the perpetrators have become more confident and daring. In most previous incidents, churches were targeted from the outside, but the perpetrator of the St. Peter and St. Paul Church attack breached security and blew himself up inside the church.

They’re women too

To mark International Women’s Day, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is publishing scenes from the lives of trans women as part of a series titled “They’re Women Too.” The stories’ aim is to spotlight the hardship experienced by trans women in Egypt.

Nadeem Center Forcibly Shut Down

The persistent legal harassment—the closure of the Nadeem Center will not be the last incident—will not deter Egyptian rights organizations from steadfastly exposing the current regime’s abuses and its violations of citizens’ fundamental human rights. We will continue to conduct research, monitor, and raise awareness in service of human rights principles and in defense of those victimized by draconian laws designed to forcefully shutdown the public sphere and all outlets for peaceful expression of opinion.

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