Committee Against Torture Condemns Egypt

In June and July 2002, Human Rights Watch investigated abuses of Egyptian children arrested for being "liable to perversion" -- a category that includes children who are homeless, begging, truants, or mentally ill. We submitted our preliminary findings to the United Nation's Committee Against Torture's November 2002 review of Egypt. Based on our submission, the Committee expressed concern about "[t]he many reports of abuse of under-age detainees, especially sexual harassment of girls, committed by law enforcement officials, the lack of monitoring machinery to investigate such abuse and prosecute those responsible, and the fact that minors are kept in places of detention in contact with adult detainees." It recommended that Egypt "[h]alt and punish all practices involving abuse of minors in places of detention, and ban the holding of under-age detainees with adult detainees."