UN must adopt resolution on human rights in Egypt: rights groups

Reactions continue to letters from prisoners, which recorded the violations and the intensified suffering of hundreds of detainees in Badr Prison for Reform and Rehabilitation, with letters mentioning some detainees committing suicide.

Human rights organisations have called on the UN to adopt a resolution on the worsening human rights crisis in Egypt following reports that some detainees have committed suicide as a result of their suffering in prison.

A leaked letter bearing the signature “Detainees of Badr Prison 3… Blocks 1, 2, 3, 4”, talked about three suicide attempts in the prison as a result of the violations, in addition to a number of prisoners, including Muhammad Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood guide, organising a strike.

According to the Egyptian Network for Human Rights, “ the goal of the repressive measures is to inflict the greatest possible psychological and moral destruction on the detainees, which became clear after one of the detainees committed suicide, and others attempted suicide. They were transferred for treatment in the prison hospital. They did so to escape the continuous suffering for years without any limits.”

In a report titled “Limitless Systematic Psychological Destruction Inside Prisons” the organisation said that “suicide attempts are a natural and logical consequence of the catastrophe of the human rights file and the gross violations committed by the authorities, whether executive, represented by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, the Public Prosecution or the judiciary. They all agree on violating the rights of detainees, and insisting on depriving them of the lowest standards of fair trials.”

Prisoners have been “completely cut off from their families and the outside world,” it added, which has worsened their mental state.

The organisation called on everyone to “assume their constitutional, legal and humanitarian responsibilities, whether Egyptian officials or the international community, to stand together in the face of serious violations of the rights of prisoners, to unite efforts to save what can be saved, and to grant detainees the right to their legitimate rights under the constitution and the law, and an end to this catastrophic file that has been going on for years.”

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