The “Committee for Justice” (CFJ) has stated that the attention given by UN mechanisms and the international community to the rights of persons with disabilities has materialized through treaties and charters aimed at protecting them and ensuring their enjoyment of fundamental rights without discrimination. At the forefront of these agreements is the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). However, despite these efforts, the situation remains grim for persons with disabilities in repressive countries such as Egypt, where they suffer from systematic and severe violations in detention facilities, including medical neglect, denial of basic services, and even torture and enforced disappearance. This starkly highlights the vast gap between Egypt’s international commitments and the harsh reality experienced by detainees with disabilities.
As part of its commitment to advocating for persons with disabilities and ensuring their human and fundamental rights, CFJ has submitted a detailed report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This report was presented during the 20th session of the pre-sessional working group (March 2025) and sheds light on the violations suffered by persons with disabilities in Egyptian detention facilities. It provides documented evidence exposing the contradiction between Egyptian authorities’ claims of improving conditions and the reality, which indicates a lack of even the most basic infrastructure adaptations, widespread medical neglect, and systematic discrimination and mistreatment.
One of the key cases highlighted in the report is that of detainee Oqba Alaa Labib Hashad, who was arrested on political charges. Hashad, a young man who lost his right leg at a young age and relies on a prosthetic limb for mobility, was arrested in May 2019 and forcibly disappeared for 75 days. During this period, he was subjected to physical and psychological torture, including electric shocks and severe beatings, as retaliation for his brother’s human rights activism. He was also denied access to his prosthetic limb for extended periods, which severely affected his physical and psychological well-being. These practices represent not only a blatant violation of the CRPD but also a failure of the Egyptian authorities to uphold even the most basic humanitarian and legal standards for protecting detainees with disabilities.
The report further exposes the false claims made by Egyptian authorities regarding the provision of detention facilities suitable for persons with disabilities. Documented evidence confirms that most Egyptian prisons lack infrastructure modifications that would allow detainees with disabilities to move freely, such as ramps and accessible restrooms. Assistive devices needed by some detainees are also not provided. The reality, according to the report, reflects a clear policy of discrimination, as persons with disabilities are detained in inhumane conditions that exacerbate their suffering and place them in a more vulnerable position compared to other detainees.
Regarding healthcare for detainees with disabilities, the report reveals that Egyptian authorities deliberately deprive them of essential medical care, including physical therapy, prosthetic devices, and necessary medications. It also documents cases where detainees were denied access to hospitals or specialist doctors despite suffering from critical medical conditions. Such violations contradict Egypt’s obligations under Article 25 of the CRPD, which requires states to provide appropriate and non-discriminatory healthcare to persons with disabilities.
Additionally, the report analyzes Egypt’s claims that it has taken measures to prevent discrimination against detainees with disabilities, such as creating designated prison wings for them. However, field investigations have proven these measures to be superficial and inadequate. The reality in Egyptian prisons continues to pose a serious threat to the lives of detainees with disabilities, where torture and cruel treatment remain systematic practices.
Given the serious violations documented in its report, CFJ has submitted a set of urgent recommendations to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, urging Egyptian authorities to take more serious steps to improve conditions for this vulnerable group and to ensure compliance with the CRPD. These recommendations include:
- Ensuring an adequate detention environment for persons with disabilities: CFJ calls for infrastructure modifications in detention facilities to accommodate persons with disabilities. This includes installing ramps inside prison cells and public areas, creating accessible restrooms, equipping buildings with support handles and designated spaces, providing assistive and prosthetic devices, ensuring medical teams are available to maintain and replace these devices when needed, and placing detainees with disabilities in suitable cells separate from individuals who may pose a threat to them.
- Guaranteeing appropriate medical and therapeutic care: CFJ urges authorities to ensure detainees with disabilities have access to proper healthcare by establishing medical units within detention centers equipped to serve them. It also calls for specialized medical staff, a steady supply of essential medications, an end to systematic medical neglect, and the implementation of immediate measures to guarantee detainees’ right to receive regular medical treatment, including facilitating their transfer to external hospitals when necessary.
- Ending ill-treatment, torture, and ensuring legal protection: CFJ calls on Egyptian authorities to halt all forms of torture and cruel or inhumane treatment of detainees with disabilities and to conduct immediate, independent investigations into reported cases of torture and mistreatment. This includes establishing an independent mechanism for receiving complaints from detainees with disabilities or their families regarding violations, holding perpetrators accountable, and ending enforced disappearance practices targeting persons with disabilities.
- Enhancing independent oversight and adherence to international treaties: CFJ urges authorities to allow international human rights organizations and independent monitors to access prisons and conduct regular visits to assess the conditions of detainees with disabilities. It also calls for the implementation of UN and human rights organizations’ recommendations regarding the rights of persons with disabilities and ensuring their access to adequate legal support.
- Immediate release of detainees with disabilities who do not pose a threat: CFJ calls for a review of prison sentences issued against persons with disabilities and for providing more humane alternatives to incarceration that align with their medical needs and conditions. It also advocates for fair compensation for detainees who have been subjected to torture or mistreatment in detention and for ensuring their physical and psychological rehabilitation upon release.
In conclusion, CFJ warns that the continued violation of the rights of detainees with disabilities by Egyptian authorities constitutes a clear breach of their international commitments and calls for urgent action from the United Nations and the international community to pressure Egypt into implementing these recommendations and ending the impunity of those responsible for violating the rights of persons with disabilities in detention facilities.
