Short Country Report–Criminalising Hate Speech: Egypt

The prohibition of hateful expression in Egypt was historically used as a tool to protect the interests of the Egyptian State, by linking the crime to the criteria of disturbance of the public peace. With different UN treaty bodies reviewing the Egyptian Law, it looks like some official efforts have been deployed to give effect to international norms, as the 2014 Constitution in its equality clause has considered incitement of hatred a crime to be punished by Law, but the current legal framework relating to hateful expression remains fragmented and incomplete.