sep 11, 2026
Egyptian and international human rights organisations have launched a Shadow Human Rights Strategy setting out key reforms for Egypt’s criminal justice system
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The undersigned organizations today release Reform or Rhetoric? A Civil Society Benchmark for Criminal Justice Reform in Egypt’s 2027–2032 National Human Rights Strategy (the “Shadow Strategy”).
This is an independent, civil society-led benchmark against which Egypt’s renewed National Human Rights Strategy can be measured.
Egypt’s previous National Human Rights Strategy 2021-2026 was, in the assessment of the undersigned organizations, more style than substance. Its commitments were broad and indeterminate, without measurable indicators to track progress or evaluate outcomes, and follow-up and review mechanisms were limited.
An opportunity
As Egypt begins developing its renewed Strategy, the undersigned organizations see an opportunity to help ensure it does not repeat these shortcomings.
A credible renewed Strategy will need to move beyond restating existing legal guarantees and instead adopt specific objectives aimed at the structural challenges facing Egypt’s criminal justice system. It should also clearly assign responsibilities to relevant authorities, publicly announce timelines and benchmarks, and facilitate meaningful public and civil society participation and scrutiny.
The Shadow Strategy is intended to support that process.
The Shadow Strategy draws on years of documentation and reform proposals put forward by Egyptian and international civil society organisations, together with findings and recommendations from United Nations treaty bodies, Special Procedures, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
It sets out the minimum reforms required to move Egypt’s criminal justice system from one characterised by repression and impunity towards one governed by human rights and the rule of law.
The Shadow Strategy addresses six mutually reinforcing areas of reform:
• The legal framework and effective remedies
• Emergency, counter-terrorism, and national security powers
• Preventing torture and other ill-treatment
• Enforced disappearance
• Liberty, detention, and the treatment of persons deprived of liberty
• The administration of justice, fair trial rights, and independence of the judiciary
Taken together, these pillars are designed to identify and describe necessary structural changes to Egypt’s criminal justice system.
Isolated fixes in the from of training programs, new initiatives, and individual case remedies cannot substitute for substantive reform of the laws, institutions, and incentive structures that produce and sustain violations in the first place.
The Shadow Strategy does not include implementation indicators at this stage. The undersigned organizations intend to develop these once the content of Egypt’s own renewed National Human Rights Strategy has been made public, so that the two documents can be assessed against one another with precision.
Measurable reforms
Representatives from three of the organisations behind the Shadow Strategy emphasise the need for measurable reforms, independent monitoring and meaningful civil society participation.
Ahmed Mefreh, Executive Director, Committee for Justice, Committee for Justice, said:
»Egypt’s second National Human Rights Strategy should not be judged by the commitments it contains on paper, but by whether it leads to measurable change in practice. Clear benchmarks, independent monitoring, meaningful civil society participation, and concrete reforms to the criminal justice system are essential if the new strategy is to have real credibility and impact«.
Mohamed Lotfy, Executive Director, Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, said:
»The Shadow strategy, endorsed by a large number of Egyptian independent human rights organizations, emphasizes the most pressing reforms needed to end arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearance as well as respect of the right to fair trial in Egypt«.
Giorgio Caracciolo, Regional Manager for MENA, DIGNITY, said:
»A national human rights strategy is only as credible as the changes it is able to make. Egypt has the opportunity to build a strategy this time around that is grounded in independent evidence, developed in real partnership with civil society, and structured so that progress can actually be verified — not just announced«.
SIGNED BY:
Committee for Justice
Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
DIGNITY
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