The Committee for Justice (CFJ) expressed its welcome of the letter sent by five UN Special Rapporteurs to the Egyptian authorities, in which they expressed deep concern over what they described as harassment and transnational repression faced by journalist and human rights defender Basma Mostafa.
The letter stated that Basma Mostafa, co-founder and program director at the Foundation for Law and Democracy Support, and a fellow at Reporters Without Borders, has been subjected to a series of violations due to her work in investigative journalism for over a decade. She was arrested three times in Egypt before being forced to leave the country in 2020.
The Special Rapporteurs noted that Basma has faced a sustained campaign of intimidation, surveillance, physical assaults, and repeated attempts to hack her online accounts. These violations were not limited to Egypt but extended to her time in Lebanon, Kenya, Switzerland, and Germany, where she currently resides as a political refugee.
The rapporteurs emphasized that these practices represent a recurring pattern of targeting women human rights defenders in Egypt. They pointed out that they had submitted similar complaints to the Egyptian authorities in previous years, without receiving any official response.
The Special Rapporteurs called on the Egyptian authorities to disclose any investigations conducted into the alleged violations against Basma Mostafa. They also urged the authorities to clarify the legal procedures and policies in place to protect journalists and human rights defenders, with particular focus on gender-specific protections for female journalists and activists.
The letter was signed by: the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and the Chair of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.
For its part, the CFJ expresses full support for the content of the letter, considering it a spotlight on the systematic violations faced by Egyptian female journalists and activists, as well as human rights defenders in general. The committee also calls on the international community to intensify its efforts to pressure the Egyptian authorities to end these practices and ensure the protection of human rights defenders both within and outside the country.