The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
PRESS RELEASE

Statement by Egyptian human rights organizations

2 May 1999


The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) was elected member of the
Council of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) at its
annual meeting held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 19-23 April 1999. Hisham
Kassem, a member of EOHR's Board of Trusties, attended the meeting as
EOHR's representative.

The Council of IFEX is renewed every year with the election of three new
members for a three-year mandate. This year, EOHR was elected, along with
PEN International (UK) and Institute for Press and Society (Peru), among 18
nominated organizations.

In the opening speech, IFEX Executive Director, Wayne Sharpe, expressed his
appreciation of the role played by the EOHR. He referred to the
difficulties faced by the organization last year when its secretary
general, Hafez Abu Seada, was arrested and imprisoned for five days, and
called for solidarity with the EOHR in the face of these attacks.

Also, he welcome EOHR's representative Hisham Kassem, who gave a
presentation on the situation of freedom of opinion and expression in Egypt
and the Arab World. He dealt specifically with restrictions on freedom of
opinion and expression, the right to issue newspapers and the violations to
which journalists are exposed.

IFEX is an international network concerned with the exchange of information
on freedom of opinion and expression issues around the world. The network
is run by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and has its
headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

On 2 February 1997, the EOHR became the only member of IFEX in the Middle
East in recognition of its effective role in confronting human rights
violations in general, and violations of the right to freedom of opinion
and expression in particular.

This document is published online by Derechos Human Rights. Derechos works against violations to human rights and humanitarian law all over the world.