El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence has vowed that it will not stop helping victims of torture and violence despite the Egyptian government's decision to shut the organization down.
On February 17 the organization said that authorities had ordered its closure through a directive from the Health Ministry, which said the organization had committed "unspecified violations".
Aida Seif al-Dawla, co-founder of the El Nadeem center, appeared emotional during a news conference on February 21, promising that the organization would continue to track torture and violence against citizens despite its closure.
"The only way for there to be no torture reports is for the state to stop torturing people," said Seif al-Dawla during the press conference.
A statement by the NGO released on February 22 reported that several members of the El Nadeem center visited the Health Ministry to inquire about the alleged violations and were told that the center conducted "activities beyond their mandate, such as the publication of torture reports."
The El Nadeem center requested that the closure be postponed, but their request was denied. The center was officially closed on February 22.
International organizations have condemned the government's decision to close the El Nadeem center as the continuation of a crackdown on human rights activists.
Amnesty International said the NGO gives a lifeline to hundreds of victims of torture and forced disappearance.
"This looks to us like a barefaced attempt to shut down an organization which has been a bastion for human rights and a thorn in the side of the authorities for more than 20 years,” said Said Boumedouha, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Program.
Human Rights Watch called on authorities to revoke the decision to close the center, which is one of the only organizations in Egypt that provides regular medical services and counseling to victims of torture and violence, including sexual assault.
HRW Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson, said that closing the El Nadeem center "would be a devastating blow to Egypt's human rights movement as well as victims of abuse".
A January 2016 report released by the El Nadeem center claimed that in 2015 almost 500 people were killed by Egyptian security forces and over 600 people were tortured while in police custody.
