Amnesty International and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) have said in reports on the year 1997 there have been two negative developments.
The first was the People’s Assembly’s decision to extend the Emergency Law, in force since 1981, for three more years. The second negative development was the implementation of a new law regulating the relationship between owners of agricultural land and tenant farmers. The fierce confrontation between security forces and Islamist militants was highlighted by both reports as the main cause of human rights violations.