(Beirut) - The Egyptian authorities during 2025 systematically dismantled basic freedoms and suffocated civic space, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2026. Economic crises, coupled with authorities' underfunding of public services like education and health care, undermined people's socioeconomic rights.

"The Egyptian authorities have kept a chokehold over the country this past year, with rights defenders, journalists, and activists imprisoned," said Amr Magdi, senior Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities are crushing peaceful dissent with impunity and at the same time failing in their basic duty to manage the economy in a way that fulfills people's rights."

In the 529-page World Report 2026, its 36th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Philippe Bolopion writes that breaking the authoritarian wave sweeping the world is the challenge of a generation. With the human rights system under unprecedented threat from the Trump administration and other global powers, Bolopion calls on rights-respecting democracies and civil society to build a strategic alliance to defend fundamental freedoms.

The authorities should end their repression of speech and civic space. They should establish an independent committee to review the situation of thousands of jailed political opponents, protesters, journalists, and activists who have been languishing in jails for years and release everyone unlawfully detained. They should also appropriately increase spending on education and health and establish universal social security for all.

Source: Human Rights Watch