Cairo International Book Fair

Event kicks off January 23 Cairo - Arabstoday Around 735 publishers from 25 countries will participate in the forty-fourth session of the Cairo International Book Fair, which starts on Wednesday. Head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation and coordinator of the fair, Ahmed Mujahid said that "493 publishers are participating in the exhibition from Egypt, 210 publishers from 17 Arab countries, as well as eight other foreign countries." He also noted that President Mohammed Morsi might open the Fair this year. General Egyptian Book Organisation earlier announced that the guest of honour of the forty-fourth session of the Cairo Book Fair will be Libya. Tunisia was the guest of honour for the first session held after the January 25 Revolution, It is expected that nearly 250 prominent Libyan intellectuals and artists will take part in the Libyan artistic and cultural programme. As for the cultural programme this year, several seminars will be held addressing various topics of interest to the Egyptian citizen under the slogan "dialogue, not conflict." The exhibition discusses the literary and artistic works of the youth, as well as new books and novels. The exhibition will include a competition for the best book with an award of 10 thousand pounds in addition to an award for the best publisher worth 20 thousand pounds. The international human rights organisation will have a stand at the event featuring some of its work in the region including Amnesty International reports and briefings on Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa and beyond. Representatives of the organisation will be present to explain the activities of Amnesty International and will invite people to sign petitions on key human rights issues in the Middle East and North Africa and around the world. It will also be possible for people attending the fair to join the global organisation, which has more than three million members and supporters. “This is the second consecutive year we are attending the Cairo Book Fair, and we were encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response we received last year,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director. “This has once again been a year of huge change and human rights challenges in Egypt, and this fair is an ideal opportunity for Amnesty International to present its work to the Egyptian public and seek their participation in our activities to promote human rights around the world.”