Hossam Bahgat
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Hossam Bahgat is an Egyptian human rights activist and the founder of the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights or EIPR ( ar, المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية) is an independent Egyptian human rights organization, established in 2002. It is a Cairo-based think tank. Structure and leade ...
. He was an investigative journalist at ''
Mada Masr ''Mada Masr'' ( ar, مدى مصر) is an independent Egyptian online newspaper, founded in June 2013 by former journalists of the English-language newspaper ''Egypt Independent'' following the shutting down of its editorial operations in April 20 ...
.'' He was the 2011 recipient of the Alison Des Forges Award from
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
"for upholding the personal freedoms of all Egyptians".


Early life

Hossam Bahgat was born in 1978 in Alexandria. He studied and still lives in the same city.


Career

Bahgat started his career as a journalist. He subsequently worked for the
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), founded in April 1985 and with its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, is a non-profit NGO and one of the longest-standing bodies for the defense of human rights in Egypt. It investigates, monitors, a ...
(EOHR), but he was dismissed in 2001 following public disagreements over the organization's inaction regarding 52 gay men having been arrested on the basis of their sexuality (a mass arrest known as the " Queen Boat incident"). On July 23, 2001, Bahgat published an article in ''MERIP'' criticizing government crackdown on Egyptian gay communities and a "shattered rights movement," directly addressing the mass arrest. He was dismissed from his EOHR position two days after publication. Following his departure from EOHR, he founded the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights or EIPR ( ar, المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية) is an independent Egyptian human rights organization, established in 2002. It is a Cairo-based think tank. Structure and leade ...
, a human rights organization, in 2002. It was the first human rights organization in Egypt to recognize
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...
as human rights.


Persecution

Bahgat was arrested on 8 November 2015 for three days for "publishing false news that harms national interests and disseminating information that disturbs public peace" during the presidency of
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
. The arrest was condemned both by the
Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
and
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. In January 2016, he issued more public criticism of el-Sisi's regime, stating that the "level of repression now assignificantly higher than it was under the
Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...
regime". In 2016, he was banned from traveling and his assets were froze on the background of Case 173, known as the foreign funding case, which targeted dozens of nongovernmental organizations. In 2020 the European Parliament passed a resolution titled ''The deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, in particular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR'', in which it is recognized that EIPR «provides an invaluable service in promoting personal, political, civil, economic and social rights and freedoms in the country», and is asked to revoke the restrictive measures against Bahgat. In July 2021, an investigative judge in Case 173 summoned Bahgat and interrogated him after the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
accused him of inciting the public against state institutions. In response, the United States State Department said it «is concerned by continued detentions, indictments, and harassment of Egyptian civil society leaders ..including the indictment of the Director General of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Hossam Bahgat.»


Awards

Bahgat received the journalism price ''Anna Politkovskaja'' from the Italian magazine ''Internazionale'' in September 2016 in
Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
. In his speech at the ceremony, he said «I well know that we will have to struggle, if not for a victory, at least for keeping track of this harsh period of egyptian history».


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahgat, Hossam Living people 1978 births Politicians from Alexandria Egyptian human rights activists Egyptian journalists Egyptian prisoners and detainees Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Egypt