Mr. Hossam Bahgat will be the Fall 2023 Gruber Distinguished Lecturer in Global Justice. He will be in conversation with Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law. The Lecture will be taking place virtually on Monday, October 23, at 4:30 p.m. You must register for the event.

Mr. Hossam Baghat began his career as a journalist. He subsequently worked for the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), but he was dismissed in 2001 following public disagreements over the organization’s inaction regarding 52 gay men having been arrested on the basis of their sexuality (a mass arrest known as the “Queen Boat incident”). Following his departure from EOHR, he founded the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a human rights organization, in 2002. It was the first human rights organization in Egypt to recognize LGBT rights as human rights.

Baghat has received numerous awards for his human rights and journalism work. In 2016, he was (and still is) banned from traveling and his assets were frozen on the background of Case 173, known as the foreign funding case, which targeted dozens of nongovernmental organizations. In 2020 the European Parliament passed a resolution titled, The deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, in particular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR, in which it is recognized that EIPR «provides an invaluable service in promoting personal, political, civil, economic and social rights and freedoms in the country», and is asked to revoke the restrictive measures against Baghat.

We ask that you RSVP for the event by October 10, 2023. Please email us with any questions at gruber.events@yale.edu.