Stopping human rights activists at Cairo Airport . EOHR calls for putting an end to coercive procedures at Cairo Airport 

EOHR was deeply concerned to learn that security officials at Cairo Airport stopped Mr. Yasser Hassan for interrogation and inspection.  Mr. Hassan is a lawyer and a member of the treasurer’s boards of both the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.  He was stopped while leaving for Morocco on July 15, 2003, and after his return on July 18, 2003.  He was in Morocco to attend a conference on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was organized by the Arab Organization for Human Rights in cooperation with the UNDP. 

EOHR has obtained information that confirms that Mr. Hassan’s name is on a state security list of people they inspect and interrogate upon departure from, or arrival to, Egypt, with or without justification.  This is a clear breach of Mr. Hassan’s personal security and mobility rights – both of which are guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution and the International instruments concerning human rights.

EOHR believes that these procedures are in conflict with the articles of the Declaration on the protection of Human Rights Defenders. In this regard, EOHR calls upon the Ministry of the Interior to remove him and other public, political and legal figures from such lists, and to stop interrogating these individuals when they travel to and from Egypt.