‘Corona Meter’ is a new platform that works on disseminating data and information obtained by CFJ by merits of its work on monitoring detention centers in Egypt, according to the organization’s methodology of documenting and verifying violations inside the places of detention, in addition to information obtained from other human rights stakeholders.
Our work in this platform includes publishing data and information on active COVID-19 patients and those suspected of contacting them, including inmates and other detainees, security and administrative crews inside detention centers, and judges, attorney-generals, and legal representatives.
To date, the number of suspected COVID-19 cases inside prisons and places of detention is on rise.
“Corona Meter” uses an interactive map to reveal the truth of COVID-19 spread inside Egyptian prisons and places of detention, and delivers instructions on how law enforcement personnel, courts, legal representatives and victims’ families may deal with the crises to mitigate the risk that other detainees and their relatives may be exposed to.
CFJ emphasizes that its primary objective is not spread panic and fear among the families of detainees, but to highlight the true suffering of prisoners and detainees inside the Egyptian places of detention as a result of violating their basic human rights, particularly the right to health care.
Note withstanding, in many statements and standpoints, CFJ has called upon the Egyptian authorities for serious actions to protect detainees inside prisons and places of detention against the rise of COVID-19, and for undertaking necessary measures to confront this pandemic following human rights standards.
In its annual report, published in April 2020, CFJ documented 546 incidents under ‘denial of medical care’ and 819 incidents under ‘overcrowding and poor ventilation’.
The institution, again, calls upon the Egyptian authorities to hold an open dialogue with human and civil rights organization to find a consensual basis for curbing human rights violations and improving the conditions inside prisons and places of detention, in accordance with the Egyptian law and constitution, as well as Egypt’s international obligations.
