The United Nations has decided to postpone a regional conference on torture that was due to be held in Egypt in September, following an outcry by human rights organisations, a UN spokesperson told Middle East Eye on Tuesday.

The United Nations is set to hold a conference on torture in Egypt, where authorities are accused of rampant human rights abuses.

Umm Zubeida has cut her hair off and gone on hunger strike to protest against the decision by Egyptian authorities to return her to prison and keep her arbitrarily detained, according to the international rights platform We Record.

Twetnty-two deaths resulted from medical neglect in Egyptian prisons since the beginning of this year until the end of July, according to a report from the Adalah Centre for Rights and Freedoms. 

An international rights platform has documented thousands of violations against women in Egypt since 3 July 2013, a turning point in the regime’s treatment of females, which was considered a red line by previous governments.

Egypt’s Ministry of Interior granted all inmates nationwide one exceptional visit on the occasion of Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), which falls this year on Aug.11.

Umm Zubeida, who told the BBC in 2018 that her daughter had been forcibly disappeared by security forces and tortured, has been returned to prison despite the fact that a Cairo criminal court ordered her release on Saturday.

The Disciplinary Board of the Cairo Court of Appeals has postponed the trial of the Court of Appeal President, Hisham Raouf, and the Court of Cassation vice-president, Assem Abdel-Jabbar, who were detained after they helped draft a law against torture.

About 130 inmates have been on hunger strike in an Egyptian prison for more than six weeks in protest at inhumane conditions and denial of family visits, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Deputy leader of Egypt’s Wasat Party has been imprisoned for six years in solitary confinement having been denied family visits for two years and meetings with his lawyer for three.