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Sign-on: Defend Democratic Rights in Egypt
February 26, 2014
Dear Friend of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy,
Please take a moment to add your name to this important appeal launched recently by the Egypt Solidarity Campaign in defense of democratic rights in Egypt.
You will notice that the one of the individuals the letter is addressed to is Prime Minister Hazem el Beblawi, who resigned his position two days ago and has not been replaced. Therefore the letter will go only to President Adly Mansour.
You can add your name by going here.
Thank you for your solidarity!
Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison
Co-Directors, Campaign for Peace and Democracy
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| On the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 24 dozens of political activists and protesters in Cairo participated in a stand in opposition to the detention of political prisoners. Photo: Ahram |
Defend Democratic Rights in Egypt
http://egyptsolidaritycampaign.org/
TO:
President Adly Mansour
Prime Minister Hazem el Beblawi
WE, THE undersigned, condemn the Egyptian government’s arrest, detention and torture of activists exercising their right to legally and peacefully protest. Human rights groups, journalists’ associations, and other organizations have documented abuses by Egypt’s police and security forces, including the use of excessive force, mass arrests, and the torture and killing of those who dissent.
Since the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, one government after another has pledged to hold the state’s security apparatus accountable for its abuses of Egyptian citizens, and one government after another has failed to do so. The right to speak out and to peacefully assemble and protest is an essential component of a democratic society, and the Egyptian Revolution was broadly celebrated for achieving this most fundamental aspiration of the Egyptian people. But this aspiration has been thwarted by the military’s rehabilitation of the hated security laws as well as some of the same individuals who carried out these repressive laws before they were driven from public life by the 2011 revolution.
We call on all those who stand for such basic rights as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to protest to join us in demanding the immediate release of activists targeted by the Egyptian regime in the exercise of their democratic rights and an end to the government’s use of repression against all those who wish nothing more than the dignity of having their voices heard.