Hossam Bahgat to Deliver Gruber Lecture on Jan. 30

Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and a globally renowned human rights activist, will deliver the 2023 Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Global Justice.

Bahgat’s talk will take place in conversation with Professor of Law Aslı Ü. Bâli ’99 on Jan. 30 2024. The event will be held via Zoom, given that the Egyptian government has, on account of Bahgat’s activism, placed him under a travel ban for the last seven years.

The event is open to the Yale community. Registration is required. To register, community members should complete this form.

An investigative journalist by training, Bahgat has devoted the last 25 years to defending human rights in Egypt. He founded EIPR, the first human rights organization in Egypt to recognize LGBTQ equality as a matter of human rights, in 2002. Bahgat most recently returned to EIPR in 2021 to serve a second tenure as executive director. He has also chaired the board of the International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) and served as a board member of the Fund for Global Human Rights.

Earlier in his career, Bahgat worked for the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), a prominent institution within Egypt. In 2001, he personally denounced the Egyptian government’s persecution of 52 gay men arrested in the “Queen Boat incident.” He also condemned Egypt’s human rights establishment — which included EOHR — for failing to defend LGBTQ rights. He was dismissed from the organization two days later.

Among other journalistic experience, Bahgat has served as an investigative reporter at Mada Masr, an independent, Cairo-based publication that covers political change, civil liberties, and human rights in Egypt. During his time there, Bahgat examined corruption involving relatives of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, clandestine military trials employed against civilians, and the Egyptian army’s efforts to undermine democratic norms.

For his writing and activism, Bahgat has faced years of state repression. The Egyptian government arrested Bahgat in 2015, alleging that he was “publishing false news that harms national interests and disseminating information that disturbs public peace.” Bahgat’s arrest drew international condemnation, including from the Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International. The following year, Bahgat was forbidden from traveling abroad and had his assets frozen in so-called Case 173, a legal campaign that targeted dozens of nongovernmental organizations. In 2021, Bahgat was convicted of spreading false news and insulting a government authority. Bahgat has continued to speak out against the regime of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Bahgat’s efforts to uphold human rights have gained international renown. He is the recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, the Catherine and George Alexander Law Prize from Santa Clara University, and the Anna Politkovskaya Award for Courageous Journalism. In 2020, the European Parliament passed a resolution that recognizes Bahgat and EIPR’s “invaluable service in promoting personal, political, civil, economic and social rights and freedoms in the country.”

The Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Global Justice and the Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Rights feature speakers whose exceptional achievements have served the causes of global justice and women’s rights. The lecture is a core component of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women’s Rights, a Yale University program administered by Yale Law School.