Egyptian authorities are again threatening to close El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture after having tried to close the center twice in less than two months.

Egyptian authorities are again threatening to close El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture after having tried to close the center twice in less than two months.

On April 5, the Egyptian Ministry of Health sent a delegation to El Nadeem Center to implement an administrative closure order, but the center’s directors refused to leave the premises as the Ministry of Health representatives did not present the original document of the closure order as required by law. The Ministry of Health and Population claimed that the center violated the terms of its license and the closure decision was in accordance with Law No. 153 of 2004 regulating the administration of medical facilities.

This was not the first harassment incident experienced by the center – it was previously stormed by a committee in 2004.

Political decision

Director of the center Magda Adly said that the decision to close the center was a political one against the center’s publications, which expose the violations of the state. The center’s latest report issued three months ago under the tile ‘Oppression Harvest in January 2016’ documented numerous illegal violations against citizens including extra judicial killings, torture, medical neglect and enforced disappearances.

“On February 08, two police officers and one city employee from the Azbakeyya District authority came to the center with an ‘administrative closure order’ signed by the Director of the Health Ministry’s Free Treatment Directorate. The three men ordered the clinic’s director Mona Hamed to close and seal the center for violating the terms of its license,” Adly said.

“Before issuing a closure decision for breaching license conditions, the center should have been inspected for violations and informed to correct them within a period of one month, and the visit should have also been documented in a report signed by the facility’s directors.”

El Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture is an independent NGO established in 1993. It provides legal, social, medical and psychological support to victims of state violence, domestic violence, rape, sexual violence and violence against women. Some 872 women receive help at the center.

“The closure decision was issued without prior warning,” Adly stressed and explained, “The Health Inspector visited the center on January 01 without any official document other than the verbal permission of the Ministry of Health.”

Even if closed

Adly believes that the center is being brutaly harassed by security within the context of targeting civil society organizations. “The authority considers itself above the law in the absence of justice and democracy, which will only lead to further communal violence,” she said and underlined that the center will not stop its activities even if closed as it will continue issuing torture reports under ‘Nadeem’ or ‘Doctors against Torture’.

“We as physicians believe that physical and psychological health and safety is a human right, and we swore to be unbiased towards the human health. It is also our responsibility to report any violation or encroachment against our patients. It is El Nadeem center’s promise to its victims,” Adly explained.

She also directed two messages to the Ministry of Health, public opinion and all interested in ‘El Nadeem’ issue saying, “It is the Ministry of Health not Ministry of Medicine. Health officials should have better acknowledged that the work of El Nadeem Center is complimentary to the clinic. No rehabilitation for victims of a social phenomenon is possible without raising the awareness of the public opinion and the responsible authorities of the seriousness of this phenomenon and its negative impact on society as a whole.”

The second message indicated that the Ministry of Health should have adhered to its responsibilities and limited its intervention to the scope of its work rather than be an interface to the Interior Ministry or the Ministry of Social Solidarity in their attempt to close the center.