A human rights advocate and a member of Egypt's National Council of Human Rights has told a delegation from the US State Department that human rights organizations have been subjected to "systematic demoralization" from pro-government media outlets.
Nasser Amin, who heads the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, told the delegation on a visit to Cairo from August 1 to 3 that apart from media criticism, laws regulating the activities and registration of NGOs impose further restrictions on civil society organizations, according to independent daily Youm7.
Amin explained to the newspaper that he had told the delegation, headed by Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Tom Malinowski, that conditions within Egyptian prisons had largely deteriorated and many detention facilities were overcrowded.
He added that he had suggested bail releases for inmates instead of prison time as a way of resolving the problem.
Egypt has pushed for restrictions on the financing and registration of civil society and human rights groups since the 2011 uprising.
