The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty visited the country in September and expressed alarm at the enormous disparity in poverty rates between urban and rural areas. According to the rapporteur, rural areas registered rates of multidimensional poverty as high as 70%, with poverty most pronounced in areas with large Indigenous populations. The rapporteur said that the acute poverty made young people easy recruits for organized crime and called on the authorities to continue improving the progressivity of the tax system. WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS Several obstacles persisted that inhibited women from living free of violence. More than 1,500 gender-based killings had been committed since 2014, according to civil society organizations. REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Date-of-entry eligibility requirements imposed undue restrictions on the exceptional temporary residence visa for Venezuelan citizens (VIRTE), affecting the enjoyment of temporary protection for more than half a million Venezuelan nationals living in Ecuador.3 Lack of regular status prevented Venezuelan women survivors of genderbased violence from accessing protection and care services. 1. “Ecuador: Authorities must safeguard human rights amidst preelectoral violence”, 10 August 2. “Ecuador: Ecuadorian human rights defender Pablo Fajardo stigmatized”, 28 April 3. Americas: Regularization and Protection: International Obligations for the Protection of Venezuelan Nationals, 21 September EGYPT Arab Republic of Egypt Presidential elections took place in a repressive environment, with genuine opposition candidates prevented from running and the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful The State of the World’s Human Rights assembly severely suppressed. Authorities released 834 prisoners held for political reasons but arrested over triple that number during 2023. Thousands of actual or perceived government critics remained arbitrarily detained and/or unjustly prosecuted. Enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment remained rampant. Death sentences were handed down after grossly unfair trials but the rate of executions dropped. Impunity prevailed for grave human rights violations committed in 2023 and previous years. Women and girls, religious minorities and LGBTI individuals were subjected to discrimination, violence and prosecution for exercising their human rights. Authorities failed to address economic and social rights affected by the worsening economic crisis, and to protect workers from unfair dismissals by private companies. Forced evictions from informal settlements continued, and tens of thousands of North Sinai residents were barred from returning to their homes. Refugees and asylum seekers were arbitrarily detained for irregularly entering or staying in Egypt, and forced expulsions took place. BACKGROUND The “national dialogue” began in May, but opposition politicians and human rights defenders suspended their participation after renewed arrests of government opponents. The dialogue was suspended in September ahead of presidential elections held in December, amid a deepening financial and economic crisis. The incumbent president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, won the elections from which genuine opposition candidates were barred. The president announced celebrations for the “end of terrorism” in January, while sporadic attacks in North Sinai continued. In August, the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a rights group, reported the use of child soldiers in military operations in North Sinai. In a report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued in March, Egypt confirmed that 16 is the minimum age 155