© Gigi Ibrahim from Cairo, Egypt, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A coalition of human rights organisations, including FIDH and OMCT within the framework of the Observatory, is calling on the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) to urgently address the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian writer and activist who remains arbitrarily detained in Egypt despite having completed his prison sentence. Abd el-Fattah has spent much of the past decade behind bars for his peaceful activism.

November 12, 2024

Dear Dr. Gillett, Dr. Yudkivska, Ms. Gopalan, Dr. Estrada-Castillo, and Dr. Malila,

We are writing, as a coalition of human rights organisations, regarding the urgent submission made to you, as members of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), on behalf of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the award-winning British-Egyptian writer and activist. Alaa Abd el-Fattah remains arbitrarily detained in Egypt and we strongly urge you to announce your opinion on his case at the earliest opportunity.

An international counsel team, led by barrister Can Yeğinsu, filed an urgent appeal with the UNWGAD on behalf of Mr. Abd el-Fattah and his family one year ago, on November 14, 2023, submitting that his continued detention is arbitrary and violates international law. Shortly afterwards, on November 23, 2023, 34 freedom of expression and human rights organisations sent a letter to the UNWGAD supporting that submission and urging the UNWGAD promptly to issue its opinion on this matter. On April 17, 2024, 27 freedom of expression and human rights organisations sent a follow up letter to the UNWGAD, enquiring whether there was any update in respect of this urgent appeal.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s case remains of significant concern to our organisations. He has spent much of the past decade imprisoned in Egypt due to charges related to his writing and activism. He was most recently arrested in September 2019 and was sentenced in December 2021 to five years’ imprisonment, having already spent two years in pre-trial detention. Despite completing his unjust and arbitrary five-year sentence on September 29, 2024, the Egyptian authorities have refused to release him, ignoring the time he spent in pre-trial detention. This defies international legal norms and contradicts Egyptian law. Alaa Abd el-Fattah is currently being held at Wadi al-Natrun prison near Cairo and continues to be denied consular visits, despite his British citizenship. His mother, Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike since September 29, 2024 in protest against her son’s unjust and prolonged detention.

In November 2022, UN Experts joined the increasing number of human rights voices demanding Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s immediate release. Yet two years later, having fully served his five-year sentence, he remains in prison.

Despite his ongoing incarceration, Alaa Abd el-Fattah's writing and activism continue to be recognised worldwide: most recently, in October 2024, he was announced as the joint winner of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize with Arundhati Roy, and recognised as the 2024 Writer of Courage, eliciting the following encomium from Naomi Klein at the ceremony:

Alaa Abd El-Fattah embodies the relentless courage and intellectual depth that Arundhati Roy herself so powerfully represents, making her selection of him as the Writer of Courage profoundly fitting. Despite enduring a series of unjust sentences that robbed him of over a decade of freedom, his liberation continues to be denied. This prize, shared between two vital voices, reminds us of the urgent need to continue to raise our own in a call to ’Free Alaa’ at long last.

Our organisations continue to call for Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s immediate and unconditional release and we request that the UNWGAD urgently announce its opinion on his case.

Yours sincerely,

1. Alejandro Mayoral Baños, Executive Director, Access Now

2. Ahmed Samih Farag, General Director, Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies

3. Quinn McKew, Executive Director, ARTICLE 19

4. Neil Hicks, Senior Director for Advocacy, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)

5. Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, Advocacy and Communications Director, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

6. Chris Doyle, Director, Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU)

7. Jillian C. York, Director for International Freedom of Expression, Electronic Frontier Foundation

8. Ahmed Attalla, Executive Director, Egyptian Front for Human Rights

9. Samar Elhussieny, Programs Officer, Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)

10. Daniel Gorman, Director, English PEN

11. Rasmus Alenius Boserup, Executive Director, EuroMed Rights

12. James Lynch, Co-Director, FairSquare

13. Khalid Ibrahim, Executive Director, Gulf Centre for Human Rights

14. Mostafa Fouad, Head of Programs, HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement

15. Matt Redding, Head of Advocacy, IFEX

16. Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Director, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)

17. Alice Mogwe, President, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

18. Liesl Gerntholtz, Managing Director, PEN/Barbey Freedom To Write Center, PEN America

19. Mark Allen Klenk, Writers at Risk Committee Chair, PEN Austria

20. Grace Westcott, President, PEN Canada

22. Romana Cacchioli, Executive Director, PEN International

23. Rupert Skilbeck, Director, REDRESS

24. Antoine Bernard, Director of Advocacy and Assistance, Reporters Sans Frontières

25. Ricky Monahan Brown, President, Scottish PEN

26. Ahmed Salem, Executive Director, Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR)

27. Menna Elfyn, President, Wales PEN Cymru

28. Gerald Staberock, Secretary General, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

For 27 years this partnership between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has supported and protected human rights defenders worldwide, so they can protect human rights for all of us.