Fall 2023 Gruber Distinguished Lecturer in Global Justice: Hossam Bahgat

Description

Mr. Hossam Bahgat will be the Fall 2023 Gruber Distinguished Lecturer in Global Justice. Professor Aslı Ü. Bâli will be his faculty host. As he is under a travel ban by the Egyptian government, his lecture will be held virtually.

Bahgat started his career as a journalist. He subsequently worked for the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), but he was dismissed in 2001 following public disagreements over the organization's inaction regarding 52 gay men having been arrested on the basis of their sexuality (a mass arrest known as the "Queen Boat incident"). Following his departure from EOHR, he founded the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a human rights organization, in 2002. It was the first human rights organization in Egypt to recognize LGBT rights as human rights.

Bahgat was arrested on 8 November 2015 for three days for "publishing false news that harms national interests and disseminating information that disturbs public peace" during the presidency of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The arrest was condemned both by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International. In January 2016, he issued more public criticism of el-Sisi's regime, stating that the "level of repression now [was] significantly higher than it was under the Mubarak regime."

He has received numerous awards for his human rights and journalism work. In 2016, he was banned from traveling and his assets were frozen on the background of Case 173, known as the foreign funding case, which targeted dozens of nongovernmental organizations. In 2020 the European Parliament passed a resolution titled The deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, in particular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR, in which it is recognized that EIPR «provides an invaluable service in promoting personal, political, civil, economic and social rights and freedoms in the country», and is asked to revoke the restrictive measures against Bahgat.

More details to follow soon. 

Sponsoring Organization(s)

The Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women's Rights