Gay Travel Advisory

Egypt

Penal Code established by Law No. 58/1937 & Law No. 10/1961 on Combating of Prostitution & Law 175/2018 on Cyber Crimes

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption/track.html

Legal Code Text

Article 86 - “Imprisonment shall be the inflicted penalty on whoever establishes, founds, organises, or runs contrary to the provisions of the law, an association, corporate, organization, group, or band, the purpose of which is to call by any method, for interrupting the provisions of the constitution or laws, or preventing any of the State’s institutions or public authorities from exercising its functions, or encroaching on the personal freedoms of citizens or other freedoms and public rights as guaranteed by the constitution or the law, or impairing the national unity or social peace.... The penalty prescribed in the previous clause shall be inflicted on whoever propagates by speaking or writing or by any other method, for the purposes mentioned in the first clause, and also whoever, personally or by an intermediary, holds or acquires written documents, printed matter, or records, whatever their kind, comprising propagation or advocacy of any of the foregoing, if they are prepared for distribution or access by third parties, and also whoever holds of acquires any method of printing, recording, or publicising which is used or prepared for use, even temporarily for printing, recording or diffusing anything of the foregoing.

Article 278 - “Whoever commits in public a scandalous act against shame shall be punished with detention for a period not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding three hundred pounds.”

Article 9 - “Punishment by imprisonment for a period not less than three months and not exceeding three years and a fine not less than 25 LE and not exceeding 300 LE [...] or one of these two punishments applies in the following cases: (a) Whoever lets or offers in whatever fashion a residence or place run for the purpose of debauchery or prostitution, or for the purpose of housing one or more persons, if they are to his knowledge practicing debauchery or prostitution. (b) Whoever owns or manages a furnished residence or furnished rooms or premises open to the public and who facilitates the practice of debauchery or prostitution, either by admitting persons so engaged or by allowing on his premises incitement to debauchery or prostitution. (c) Whoever habitually engages in debauchery or prostitution. Upon the apprehension of a person in the last category, it is permitted to send him for a medical examination. If it is discovered that he is carrying an infectious venereal disease, it is permitted to detain him in a therapeutic institute until his cure is completed. It is permitted to determine that the convicted person be placed, upon completion of his sentence, in a special reformatory until the administrative agency orders his release. This judgment is obligatory in cases of recidivism, and the period spent in the reformatory is not allowed to be more than three years.”

Article 25 - “Anyone who publishes online content that threatens society’s and family’s values shall be punished for at least six months of prison and a fine of at least fifty thousand pounds.”

Sources
  1. An unofficial translation of the Penal Code is available at: http://track.unodc.org/LegalLibrary/LegalResources/Egypt/Laws/Egypt%20The%20Penal%20Code%20Law%201937.pdf . (it is unclear if this is up-to-date). Some sources on imprisonment of gay men refer to other Articles of the Penal Code than the three quoted here, including an “Article 98(w)” that does not seem to be part of this unofficial translation.
  2. Text of the law is available at: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.details?p_lang=en&p_isn=57560 . See the unofficial English translation – and the explanations – in the report: In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice In Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct, Appendix: Laws Affecting Male Homosexual Conduct in Egypt (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2004): http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/egypt0304/egypt0304.pdf
  3. See the Appendix at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/egypt0304/egypt0304.pdf
  4. See the Appendix at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/egypt0304/egypt0304.pdf

ILGA Analysis & Notes

Article 178 restrictions explain why there is so little positive or balanced discussion of same-sex relationships in Egypt. In 2016, Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji was sentenced to two years in jail following the publication of a “sexually explicit” [heterosexual] excerpt from his novel ‘The Use of Life’ in state-owned literary magazine Akhbar al-Adab. Public morality is recognised by international law as grounds for limiting expression, but that limitation must not be overly broad or vague, and it must be necessary and proportionate relative to the harm that may be incurred. Likewise, individuals who, through their sexual or gender expression, disrupt conservative binary gender models are especially vulnerable in Egypt, according to an activist who was based in Egypt through recent years. Through 2015 and 2016, widely publicised arrests continue. Egypt’s 2nd cycle UPR began in November 2014. Of the 28 NGO submissions to this session, only four mentions sexual orientation directly. However, there is no mention of sexual orientation in recommendations to Egypt or in that State’s formal responses to its 2nd UPR. According to 76 Crimes, the largest reported number of arrests of LGBT people has been in Egypt, where a crackdown has been under way since 2013 as part of a larger government efort to arrest and harass political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists. In late-2016, LGBT community leaders estimate that as many as 500 LGBT people have been sent to prison.

No explicit criminalisation law; de facto criminalisation continues via the Law on Combating Prostitution (1961) and Penal Code Art. 269bis, with entrapment a common enforcement tactic. In 2023 at least one parliamentarian publicly called for a law criminalising 'promotion of homosexuality,' but no bill was introduced.

SCRUFF Travel Notes

Recent reports from Egypt claim that law enforcement officials--who are reputed to have a long history of hostility to LGBT persons--have been creating profiles on gay sites and apps with to entrap and arrest gay men. While in Egypt, extreme caution is recommended when meeting people in person or when providing personal information, including one's location.