Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Egyptian Authorities to Shut Down Human Rights NGO Nadeem

The Egyptian government has yet to provide an explanation for their decision to shut down Nadeem, a human rights NGO active since 1993.

Staff Writer

Reuters reports that the Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation for Victims of Violence and Torture – an Egyptian non-governmental organisation that has been documenting human rights violations by the government and providing treatment for torture victims since 1993 - will soon close its doors as per a decree issued by Egyptian authorities, the centre and security sources said on Wednesday.

A lawyer for the NGO, as well as security sources, revealed that the decision will not come into effect until next week, as both parties agreed to postpone the organisation’s closure until the reasons behind the move have been explained. One possible reason is unnamed violations committed by the organisation, according to a source in the Health Ministry.    

"Unless they arrest us all, we will continue in our work as long as we remain out of prison," the centre’s director Aida Seif Al Dawla told Reuters. "It would be stupid if they shut down the centre because we provide a service that no one else provides to the underprivileged."

The move has also been condemned by Amnesty International, whose MENA Deputy Director was quoted by the publication as saying: “This looks to us like a barefaced attempt to shut down an organisation which has been a bastion for human rights and a thorn in the side of the authorities for more than 20 years.”

(Photo credit: thesleuthjournal.com)