Int’l human rights organizations condemn travel bans on human rights defenders

Several international human rights organizations urged Egypt to lift foreign travel bans imposed on human rights activists, in light of a recent ban on prominent human rights lawyer Gamal Eid.

In a joint statement, Amnesty International, EuroMed Rights, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, IFEX, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, People In Need and Solidar firmly condemned the “increasingly routine imposition of arbitrary travel bans.”

The statement said, “It appears to be only aimed at undermining their legitimate and peaceful activities in defense of human rights and democracy.”

Last week, Eid, who is a lawyer with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), discovered he had been banned from foreign travel as he was preparing to board a flight to Athens at Cairo International Airport.

Airport authorities allegedly told Eid the ban was based on judicial order, but the lawyer received no prior notification regarding that decision, nor has he been told whether he is accused in any criminal cases.

“Our organizations would like to stress that this is not an isolated case in Egypt,” the statement read. “Travel bans have been repeatedly used by Egyptian authorities as a tool to intimidate and silence independent voices of human rights defenders and activists, as well as lawyers and journalists, and are unfortunately becoming standard practice in the country.”

The organizations cited three cases of people recently banned from foreign travel: activist Omar Hazek; the executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Mohamed Lotfy; and activist Esraa Abdel Fattah.

The statement also urged the international community, including the European Union, to take a stand against “the increasing crackdown by the Egyptian authorities against civil society voices.”

The organizations called on the EU to raise concerns over travel bans as a means to silence human rights defenders in high-level meetings with Egyptian authorities, as well as expressing their support for human rights defenders by inviting them to conferences, forums and hearings.