A newly published United Nations report has criticised the Egyptian government`s recent record of gay motivated raids and arrests.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention focused on the retrial of 50 men who were arrested during a boat party in Cairo. Despite the fact that homosexuality is not a crime, the men have now been charged with ‘debauchery’.

The report calls for a change in Egyptian law.

"The detention of the above-mentioned persons prosecuted on the grounds that, by their sexual orientation they incited `social dissension`, constitutes arbitrary deprivation of liberty"

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has welcomed the report.

"The decision refutes a key claim of the Egyptian government -- that consensual sexual conduct between men is not criminalised in Egyptian law. The international community must now recognize that the legislation Egypt invokes in these cases violates basic human rights."