ABSTRACT
In 1952, the Egyptian Revolution dramatically cast aside centuries of foreign domination and established a popular revolutionary republic. Because the examination of Egypt’s human rights record tends to gravitate towards state-centered analysis, an overview of formal political arrangements provides an appropriate starting point. As citizens attempt to exercise their political, social, and economic rights, they confront the realities of state censorship, intimidation, and violence. Rights to life and personal safety, the most basic of human entitlements, are not unconditionally protected by the Egyptian state. The rights of due process and fair trial, like the rights of life, safety, and freedom, are ostensibly protected under Egyptian and international law. While the government justifies suppression of Islamist militancy as part of its obligation to protect society, restrictions on freedom of expression and association reveal state intolerance of even non-militant challenges. The national media, while not targeted in the same fashion as the opposition press, is subject to different constraints on journalistic freedom.
