• EGYPT
  • May 15, 2015
  • 4 minutes read

Rights Report: Egyptian Children Victims of Military Coup Brutality, Repression

Rights Report: Egyptian Children Victims of Military Coup Brutality, Repression

 The Egyptian Observatory for Rights and Freedoms (EORF)’s special unit monitoring human rights violations against women and children has issued its report on atrocities and violations committed against children accused of ‘political crimes’ in Egypt since June 30, 2013 (the start of the illegitimate military coup).



According to the report, the number of detained children (from 9 to 17 years old) has reached 2170, and the number of children killed in various raids and clashes 217, while it documented 948 cases of children tortured by coup security forces and 78 cases of sexual violence against minors.


EORF’s figures do not differ much from those announced by Shehab Center for Human Rights in Alexandria in a February 2015 statement, which revealed that the phenomenon of arbitrary arrest of under-age children continues daily in cities and villages across Egypt, with coup forces rounding up and detaining children under eighteen years of age from the streets at random, every day. Numbers of so detained children have increased exponentially – in a most absurd and alarming manner.


Hoda Abdel-Moneim, member of both the Anti-coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance and the legitimate National Council for Human Rights, said: "The putschists’ crimes against minors have crossed all red lines amid shameful silence from human rights organizations all around, especially the National Council for the Rights of the Child, which have long paid lip service to children’s rights, and which actually proved to be good only at talk shows exploiting children’s issues.


"Despite the young age of these children targeted by the kleptocrats and the junta’s militias, and despite fierce and brutal attempts to intimidate and terrorize them, they have proven their ability to shake the coup regime and the putschists, with unprecedented resilience and steadfastness in their position against the coup."


For his part, Dr. Rashad Lashin, Professor of Educational Psychology at Al-Azhar University, says: "The current coup regime knows well that these young kids are capable of demolishing their illegitimate empire, because they face this bloody coup not for any political or financial gains, but for reclaiming their homeland and their Revolution.


"Those little ones are the stronger party in this conflict. With their determination and steadfastness, they managed to significantly unnerve these putschists."