CAIRO — George Isaac is an Egyptian history professor who called for change as the leader of the Kefaya movement. This was the first movement to oppose dynastic succession in pre-2011 Egypt amid widespread reports that former President Hosni Mubarak planned to pass the reins of leadership to his eldest son Gamal.

Isaac is also a leader of the Democratic Current Coalition and a member of the National Council for Human Rights. Isaac spoke to Al-Monitor about the human rights situation in Egypt, expressing his dissatisfaction that the council’s work has been subjected to restrictions and the Interior Ministry is delaying visit permits to prison. He called for the restructuring of the police agency and said that the council had received reports on 280 cases of forced disappearances, and police replied that 80 cases are either in prison or dead. As for the rest of the cases, the council has not received any response thus far. The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor:  How would you assess your current experience with the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights [NCHR]?

Isaac:  When we first started work at the NCHR, we were very active and our idea on ​​human rights was not only focused on people being incarcerated in prisons — something that generally comes to mind. Rather we were also concerned with economic and social rights. This is why several conferences on the social service law, health and housing were held. We have expanded the work of the NCHR to include many fields. Honestly, in the beginning, we did not have access to prisons and there was not any cooperation with us. Unfortunately, there are current restrictions on the council’s work. The evidence is that we asked for permission to visit the prison in Mina on Jan. 25, but we got permission on March 1. We have also asked to visit the police stations [where detainees are sometimes held], because they are 10 times worse than the prisons. However our request has yet to be answered.