The following statement is republished from the website of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information:

Human Rights Movement Founded to Peacefully Struggle against Imperialism and Tyranny

Cairo- 8 January 2012

The undersigned Human Rights Organizations state that “the campaign launched presently against civil society organizations working in human rights field, by Egyptian authorities accompanied by some formal and state- linked independent media- in which authorities do their best starting with suing organizations in a case known as the foreign fund case, through raiding 17 offices of Egyptian and international human rights organizations, and finally attacking the whole of the civil society through some media channels to mislead public opinion about their being foreign funded entities intended to carry out external agendas- is nothing but attempts aim chiefly at silencing civil society organizations and averting them from continuing their relentless peaceful struggle against humiliating Egyptian citizens and discarding their human rights on the hands of the ruling authorities and their security services. Such campaign could also be seen as a punishment to the organizations for playing an active role during Egypt’s revolution in exposing the police state practices which dedicated all its powers to protect the head of state at the expense of Egyptians’ dignity and rights”

The undersigned human rights organization assert that the purpose of such prearranged campaign launched by the military ruling institution is to conceal the crimes it has committed against Egyptian citizens and its use of excessive force in facing peaceful protests, particularly as HROs were of the first voices to censure the Military Council and denounce the human rights violations committed in breaking up Tahrir square sit-in on 9 March 2011 by using excessive force, and have been holding that position since then.

In this context, the undersigned organizations like to point to the long history of peaceful struggle driven by the Arab Human Rights Movement with the Egyptian movement in its heart, which enabled organizations, through their practical stands in confronting assaults on freedoms and human rights, to face the aggressive campaigns launched several times previously by the state security services during Mubarak regime to defame HROs and depict them to the public as an American scheme. The present campaign launched by the current authority will definitely fail its purpose as did the previous ones.

The undersigned organizations also stress that they will never forget the origins of their foundation as part of the Arab Human Rights Movement founded in the beginning of the eighties to stand in the face of foreign imperialism as one of the consequences of Beirut’s fall under Zionist occupation and the significances of this to human rights, as well as its historical positions in denouncing Baghdad siege, rejecting the economic penalties imposed on it, backing the Palestinian uprising in 2000, in addition to the significant role it played in the World Conference against Racism in 2001 and condemning the American war on Iraq after Baghdad fall.

The Arab and Egyptian human rights movement as it continues to play its patriotic role in confronting American and Israeli assaults, is also persistent to continue facing political tyranny and defending citizens’ human dignity and rights no matter which entity commits the violations, and no matter whether the abusing government is Arab or non- Arab.

The organizations also assert on their relentlessness in continuing their peaceful and organized struggle towards the protection and respect of human dignity and human civil and political rights despite all the defamation campaigns and all the attempts to decline their role.

The signed organizations

- The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)

- Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC)

- The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR)

- El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence (Al-Nadeem)

- Arab Penal Reform Organization (APRO)

- Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRAAP)

- Association of Freedom of Thinking and Expression (AFTE)

- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

- Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies (CCHRS)

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