Executive Summary:
The Cairo 52 Legal Research Institute (Cairo 52), established in 2020, is a non-governmental policy and research institute dedicated to the fundamental human rights of gender and sexual minorities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Our institutional ethos is firmly rooted in the principle of intersectionality, advocating for sexual and bodily freedoms for marginalized and stigmatized groups, including LGBTQ+ individuals, sex workers, people living with HIV (PLHIV), and women. We provide legal assistance, conduct research, engage in alternative media initiatives, and pursue strategic litigation to promote human rights as delineated by both domestic and international legislation.
This report is submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in anticipation of its 79th session in February 2026, during which it is scheduled to adopt its List of Issues regarding the Arab Republic of Egypt.
The information contained in this report must be contextualized within a persistent pattern of recommendations and grave findings from UN mechanisms. During its 3rd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycle (2019), Egypt endorsed recommendations aimed at providing healthcare without discrimination and enhancing its human rights framework. However, in its 4th UPR cycle (2024–2025), Egypt “noted” (rejected) all recommendations related to sexual orientation and gender identity, including those urging the repeal of discriminatory laws and the protection of individuals belonging to sexual and gender minorities from violence.
This rejection corresponds with recent alarming findings from UN Treaty Bodies. In its March 2023 Concluding Observations (CCPR/C/EGY/CO/5), the Human Rights Committee expressed profound concern regarding the use of vague anti-terrorism laws to suppress actual or perceived dissent against the Government. The Committee urged Egypt to “take steps to ensure that existing legislation invoking vague notions of morality… is not arbitrarily employed to arrest and detain individuals based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity” and to investigate all incidents of related violence.
Similarly, in its December 2023 Concluding Observations (CAT/C/EGY/CO/5), the Committee Against Torture underscored that torture is “systemic,” perpetuated by impunity, and specifically targets LGBTQI+ individuals, including the continued practice of forced anal examinations and virginity testing—a procedure lacking medical justification that constitutes torture. These findings are echoed by UN human rights experts, who have warned that practices such as “conversion therapy” are unscientific, harmful, and “can amount to torture”.
This shadow report builds upon these findings, positing that the persecution of sexual and gender minorities is not incidental but is instrumentalized by the state through the intersectional weaponization of “vice” and “morality” laws.
This report will illustrate how the ambiguous interpretation of laws such as Law 10/1961 (“Combating of Prostitution”) and Article 25 of the Cybercrime Law (“violating family principles”) acts as a legal pretext for infringing upon the private lives, sexual freedoms, and due process rights of transgender individuals, queer individuals, sex workers, and online content creators. This strategy, employed to deflect attention from economic crises and bolster state legitimacy, results in systemic violations of rights to non-discrimination (Art. 2), health (Art. 12), work (Art. 6-7), education (Art. 13), an adequate standard of living (Art. 11), family life (Art. 10), and cultural participation (Art. 15).
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