Egyptian court defers lawsuit demanding the closure of Human Rights Watch

The first circuit in the Administrative Court, headed by Judge Sami Darwish, has postponed until 18 November a lawsuit demanding the closure of the headquarters of Human Rights Watch and all other foreign organisations operating inside Egypt without a license, Al-Alam Online news website reported.

According to the lawsuit, because Human Rights Watch’s funding sources are unknown and undeclared, this raises doubts about the expenditures spent on its activities and the size and agenda of its grants to small organisations in the countries where it operates.

Human Rights Watch is a New York City-based international non-governmental organisation concerned with defending “human rights”. It was founded in 1978, reportedly to ensure the Soviet Union’s respect for the Helsinki Accords at a time when other organisations were also being established to monitor human rights around the world.

The organisation recently issued a report on the Rabaa massacre in Cairo, saying that this mass bloodshed amounted to a crime against humanity and calling upon the United Nations to form an international fact-finding committee to investigate the “mass killing operations” that claimed the lives of many supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.