Egypt Country Director for the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) Mohamed Zaree is up for the 2017 Martin Ennals Award, a prize which draws attention to human rights defenders who put themselves at risk to defend others’ rights. “It is not about winning. The Martin Ennals Award is about shedding light on dangers human rights defenders face around the world,” Zaree told Egyptian Streets. The nomination is not merely for him, Zaree believes, but for the honor of the institute and all rights defenders in Egypt who face immense challenges to stand for what they believe in, among which are death threats, funds freezing, travel bans and tarnishing reputations, he stated. Zaree is responsible for CIHRS’s legal research, media outreach and national advocacy. CIHRS’s work was influential in the Arab world particularly Egypt, which resulted in death threats to its director. This forced the CIHRS executive director and regional staff to move abroad to continue their work. Zaree chose to stay and is now banned from travel. He is a legal scholar coordinating research to challenge laws designed to limit NGOs activities working on human rights, such as freedom…
