Source description last updated: 20 May 2026

In brief: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) is a human rights organisation based in Cairo and established in 2002.

Coverage on ecoi.net:

Selected reports.

Covered quarterly on ecoi.net, for Egypt.

Mission/Mandate/Objectives:

EIPR “works to defend and promote the rights to privacy, health, religious freedom and bodily integrity” (EIPR: Universal Periodic Review of Egypt, 20^th Session, October – November 2014, 15 March 2014, p. 2) and “to strengthen and protect basic rights and freedoms in Egypt, through research, advocacy and supporting litigation in the fields of civil liberties, economic and social rights, and criminal justice.” (EIPR website: Who We Are, undated)

Funding:

No information found on the EIPR website. According to an overview on Egyptian human rights organisations by the Arab West Report from 2009, “EIPR rejects funding from the US government, but receives financial support from private funders in the US” (Arab West Report: Human Rights Organizations in Egypt, 1 May 2009, p. 99).

The magazine New Internationalist mentions in a 2009 interview EIPR director Hossam Bahgat that EIPR is “funded by the likes of the Ford Foundation and Irish Aid” (New Internationalist: Hossam Bahgat, 1 July 2009, accessed 25 November 2019, see archived version). However, no further information could be found in this regard.

Scope of reporting:

Geographic scope: Egypt.

Thematic scope: Human rights, with a focus on privacy, health, religious freedom and bodily integrity.

Methodology:

Desk and field research (EIPR: For Sale in the Prison Canteen, September 2018, p. 8), including interviews with witnesses and victims of human rights violations.

Reports usually contain a chapter on methodology (see for instance EIPR: A Death Foretold, p. 36).

Language(s) of publications:

English and Arabic.

Further reading / links:

Reuters: Human rights on trial in Egypt as NGO funding case revived, 27 March 2016,https://www.reuters.com/article/world/human-rights-on-trial-in-egypt-as-ngo-funding-case-revived-idUSKCN0WT06B/

Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy: TIMEP Brief: Case 173: Egypt’s Foreign Funding Case, 28 February 2019
https://timep.org/reports-briefings/timep-brief-case-173-egypts-foreign-funding-case/ 

AI: Egypt: NGO ‘foreign funding’ case acquittals must lead to end of crackdown on human rights community, 20 December 2018
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/12/egypt-ngo-foreign-funding-case-acquittals-must-lead-to-end-of-crackdown-on-human-rights-community/ 

All links accessed 20 May 2026 (except where noted otherwise)

Methodological note:

ecoi.net's source descriptions contain background information on an organisation’s mission & objective, funding and reporting methodology, as well as on how we cover the source. The descriptions were prepared after researching publicly accessible information within time constraints. Most information contained in a source description was taken from the source itself. The aim is to provide a brief introduction to the sources covered regularly, offering information on relevant aspects in one place in a systematic manner.