How does anyone even sleep anymore

Access to justice cannot be locked down during emergencies.

If there is one thing governments around the world should have but did not ‘lock down’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, was admitting more persons into prisons. Ignoring calls from organizations working on prison reforms across the world to release under-trials and persons in prison who are at risk because of their age and health conditions, governments of the world continued incarcerating more people, putting them and existing prison populations at risk of catching the coronavirus.

In Egypt where homosexuality remains criminalized, our partner AFE, which works on legal and mental-physical health support for marginalized populations including LGBTQI+ persons and LGBT refugees, struggled to provide support to queer and trans populations arrested during the lockdown for their gender and sexual identities/practices. As justice systems remained shut due to COVID, those arrested could not seek bail or access justice when they faced gender based and custodial violence in prisons. In a custodial violence case documented, a queer person was handcuffed to another person who was COVID positive in a prison.

Even as Courts in Egypt have opened up, they are dealing with an overwhelming number of pending cases by assigning cases of gender-based violence (GBV) to non-criminal appellates who have no experience in dealing with cases of GBV. Outside the prison, our partner supported those facing gender based violence by employing methods of monetary support, counseling survivors through voice notes and text messages when their communication access was limited, and providing relocation services to those facing violence at home. Need for justice systems to remain accessible during emergencies emerged as a critical requirement for mitigating extreme violence.

Note: At CREA, we view crimes against queer, transgender, non-binary, disabled and sex worker populations along with custodial violence as facets of gender based violence.

Artwork by Solo.

Story curated by AFE.

View the illustrated story here.