Salma Ashraf Abdel Halim Abdelghaffar
Cases- Location of case in SG report
- 2020-049-001
- Relevant SG report
- Year of the report
- 2020
- From Country
- Country Geolocation
Latitude: 26.820553
Longitude: 30.802498
- Country Geolocation (linked Cases)
- Egypt
- From Region
- UN body that raised the case prior to the SG report
- UN Special Procedures: Thematic
- Dates of prior UN action
- 2 September 2019
- Type of record
- Named individual
- Gender
- Female
- Was the victim a foreign national?
- No
- Was the victim a minor?
- No
- Individual's/organization's activity
of Human Rights Monitor; spoke as a panelist on women's rights
- Type of rights defended
- Women’s rights
- Was the victim a civil servant or member of the security forces or of the judiciary?
- No
- Reported trigger of reprisal
following their engagement with the Human Rights Council in March 2019 On 1 March 2019, Ms. Ashraf spoke as a panellist on women’s rights in Egypt during an NGO side event on the margins of the Human Rights Council.
- Engagement with UN body
- UN Human Rights Council: UN Human Rights Council - General
- Dates of engagement
- 1 March 2019
- Type of attempted engagement
- Participation in meeting on UN premises
- Dates of mentioned reprisals
- 1 March 2019; 2 March 2019
- Location of mentioned reprisals
- Geneva; Egypt
- Reprisal information
During the event, representatives from an NGO photographed and filmed Ms. Ashraf and other panellists without their permission. At the closing of the event, a representative of the same NGO took the floor and made disparaging remarks attempting to discredit Ms. Ashraf’s work. That evening, and on the following day, multiple Egyptian newspaper articles and television segments covered the NGO side event, including Ms. Ashraf’s and Mr. Zarea’s participation, accusing them of being “terrorists” and of organizing a side event to defame Egypt’s human rights record (EGY 8/2019).
- Types of reprisals suffered
- Defamation / Defamation campaign
- Surveillance
- Threats/Intimidations (incl. "fear of reprisal")
- Alleged/likely perpetrators
- Non-state actor(s)
- Was the reprisal based on new legislation?
- No
- Does the report make general comment about country’s environment for engagement with UN?
- Yes
- Is the country cited for a "pattern of reprisal" in the context of this case?
- No
- Is a pattern of reprisals mentioned otherwise in the context of this case?
- No
- Does the report cite "self-censorship" as an issue in the context of this case?
- No
- How many times has the case been followed up in subsequent SG reports?
- 0