“NO ONE CARED HE WAS A CHILD” Egyptian Security Forces’ Abuse of Children in Detention

H U M A N

R I G H T S

W A T C H

Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1

Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 8

Methodology .................................................................................................................... 10

I. Security Forces’ Abuse of Children .................................................................................. 11

II. Violations of International and Egyptian law ................................................................. 39

Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 43

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16, 2020).

سياسة: داعش يتبنى استهداف فندق األهرام والسلطات المصرية تكذبه

نيابة أمن الدولة

التالجة

قوات من الجيش والشرطه

"

إخالء سبيل متهمين "قصر" بقضية والية سيناء الثانية بتدابير احترازية

طفال متهما في قضية "والية سيناء إخالء سبيل

Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 24 on juvenile justice, paragraph 96, 2019.

hrw.org · belady-ih.org

(above) Children’s cases should always be dealt with in specialized justice systems, but Egypt’s military justice system may prosecute children in cases it determines are within its jurisdiction.

(front cover) “Tarek” was arrested during a police raid on his home at age 16, held in pre-trial detention for 30 months, and tried before a military court for attacking a government building, even though he was in detention at the time of the attack.

© 2020 Mohamed El-Masry for Human Rights Watch

Egyptian police, National Security Agency and military officials have arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, ill-treated and tortured children to obtain confessions, while prosecutors and judges covered up these and other abuses that are crimes under Egyptian law, including detaining children with adults.

“No One Cared He Was A Child”: Egyptian Security Forces’ Abuse of Children in Detention, a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Belady: An Island For Humanity, documents abuses by National Security Agency officials, police and military officers against 20 children, who were 12 to 17 years old when they were arrested. The abuses, in locations across Egypt, are part of a pattern of widespread violations by Egypt’s security forces that have become flagrant under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Children were subjected to forcible disappearance for as long as 13 months, and tortured by security officials, usually during pre-trial interrogation while held incommunicado. None of the children was shown a warrant or otherwise lawfully arrested. The report corroborates statements from children, their families, and defense lawyers using court documents, medical records, videos and other documentation.

The report calls on Egypt to open up its child detention system to international monitoring, and urges key foreign actors including the United States as well as France and other European Union countries to halt support to Egyptian security forces until Egypt takes measurable steps to end the abuses and hold accountable those responsible.

“NO ONE CARED HE WAS A CHILD” Egyptian Security Forces’ Abuse of Children in Detention