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Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

A Cairo human rights organisation founded in 2002, whose civil liberties programme has reported on the church construction law and the legalisation of churches since 2016.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) is a human rights organisation based in Cairo. Its website says it has worked since its founding in 2002 to strengthen and protect basic rights and freedoms in Egypt through research, advocacy and support for litigation in three fields: civil liberties, economic and social rights, and criminal justice. Its civil liberties programme has published a series of reports on the Church Construction Law and on the committee that legalises churches already in use, with its own counts of applications, approvals and sectarian incidents.

Key facts

Founded
2002, in Cairo
Office
14 El Saraya Al Kobra Street, Garden City, Cairo
Programmes
Criminal justice; civil liberties; economic and social justice; regional and international human rights mechanisms
Methods
Research, advocacy and support for litigation
Reports and statements on the church law
2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020

The organisation

Wikipedia and Wikidata record the organisation as established in 2002 by Hossam Bahgat, and Wikidata gives Cairo as its headquarters. Its own website lists four programmes: criminal justice, civil liberties, economic and social justice, and regional and international human rights mechanisms. Wikipedia adds that in 2010 it set up a North African Litigation Initiative to help organisations and human rights defenders in North Africa bring cases through the African human rights system.

The organisation's published address is 14 El Saraya Al Kobra Street, Garden City, Cairo, which the Arabic page of its website also names as Fouad Serag El Din Street. Its website publishes in English and Arabic, and its pages carry a Creative Commons licence.

Work on freedom of religion and belief

Freedom of religion and belief, sectarian violence and the Coptic Church are among the subjects under which the organisation files its publications, which sit within the civil liberties programme. The reports on the church law below are all filed there.

Reports on the church construction law

While Law 80 of 2016 on the building and renovation of churches was before parliament in 2016, the organisation ran a campaign called "Closed on Security Grounds: For a Fair Church Construction Law", and issued a commentary on the law on 31 August 2016. It then published a study, "Closed on Security Grounds: Sectarian Tensions and Attacks Resulting from the Construction and Renovation of Churches", which its 2018 report dates to November 2016. The study reviewed the statutes and court rulings that governed church building, and counted 74 sectarian attacks connected with the right to worship between 25 January 2011 and August 2016.

On 3 December 2017 it published a report on the law's first year, "The Law on the Construction and Renovation of Churches One Year Later", covering 28 September 2016 to the end of October 2017. The report examined the decrees issued for new churches, the prime ministerial decree that formed the committee to legalise existing churches, and 20 incidents of sectarian tension in those 13 months.

On 21 November 2018 it published "Pending Further Review: One Year of the Church Regularization Committee". The report records that the deadline for applications to the committee was 28 September 2017, that 3,730 applications were filed on behalf of churches and religious service buildings by three Christian confessions, and that in the year to the end of October 2018 the Cabinet had issued two decrees granting conditional legal status to 340 churches and buildings. It documented 15 cases of sectarian tension connected with churches that had applied, and put the total since the law was passed at 35.

On 6 January 2020 it issued a statement on the law's third year. It said that 5,540 applications had been made, that the government's announced figure of 1,412 legalised churches and buildings consisted of preliminary approvals, conditional on further steps, and that it understood final approvals had been issued for fewer than 200. It counted at least 36 cases of sectarian tension since the law took effect and 25 churches closed after the intervention of state bodies. The statement called for a single decree granting final status to every church that had applied, and for a uniform law on houses of worship.

  1. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is founded in Cairo.

  2. The North African Litigation Initiative is set up.

  3. A commentary on the church construction law is issued during the campaign "Closed on Security Grounds".

  4. The study "Closed on Security Grounds" is published, as dated by the organisation's 2018 report.

  5. The report on the law's first year is published.

  6. "Pending Further Review", on the first year of the legalisation committee, is published.

  7. The statement on the law's third year gives the figure of 5,540 applications.

Sources

  1. Who We Are — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The English page; it gives the address as 14 El Saraya Al Kobra, Cairo. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  2. من نحن (Who We Are, Arabic) — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Gives the street as El Saraya Al Kobra, known as Fouad Serag El Din, Garden City. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  3. Files: Sectarian Violence — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The subject listing under which the organisation files publications on sectarian violence. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  4. Closed on Security Grounds: Sectarian Tensions and Attacks Resulting from the Construction and Renovation of Churches — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Page date; the organisation's 2018 report dates the study to November 2016. Published 20 Nov 2017. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  5. The Law on the Construction and Renovation of Churches One Year Later — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Published 3 Dec 2017. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  6. Pending Further Review: One year of the church regularization committee — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Published 21 Nov 2018. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  7. EIPR criticizes closure of nine existing churches, affirms precarious state of right to worship, and calls for one Cabinet decree to regularize the status of all churches that applied to committee — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Published 21 Nov 2018. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  8. EIPR criticizes slow rate of church legalization: Three years later, the church construction law has failed to resolve sectarian tensions related to worship — Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Published 6 Jan 2020. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  9. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights — Wikipedia. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.
  10. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (Q5348416) — Wikidata. Accessed 13 Oct 2026.

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