Amnesty International at 50

Egypt’s women have not stopped demanding their right to shape their future, and thousands of people around the world have taken up their call.

Egypt’s military rulers, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), have taken no steps to combat discrimination or to investigate violence against women demonstrators by the military and security forces. Amnesty International’s digest, Women demand equality in shaping new Egypt, details how discrimination in law and practice is still preventing Egyptian women from participating in public and political life. Incidents of sexual abuse of women protesters continue to be reported and to go unpunished.

Amnesty International laid bare the SCAF’s damning human rights record in its report, Broken promises: Egypt’s military rulers erode human rights. Far from gaining more rights since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, women have been sidelined and their demands ignored.

In the coming months, Amnesty International will continue its campaign for Egypt to become a state that respects and upholds the rule of law and human rights, and that allows all Egyptians to participate in shaping their country’s future.

Ahead of elections to parliament, the organization set out in its Human Rights Manifesto for Egypt the 10 steps every candidate must take to achieve real human rights reform. Non-discrimination and gender equality should be central to the process of change in Egypt.