Hundreds of people gathered in Trafalgar Square on Saturday to celebrate President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. ‘In solidarity and defiance day’, organized by Amnesty International, was initially set up to mark a global day of action for protesters in Egypt and the Middle East.

Following Mubaraks resignation of power on Friday, the global rally turned into a big celebration, with trade unionists, students and human rights campaigners sharing a platform to mark the first step towards democracy.

Champ A, an Amnesty International UK activist, said “Egypt has just made the big first step towards a democratic development but constitutional reforms need to be done to ensure free elections for a new and still unpredictable form of government to come.”

Despite the joyous atmosphere amongst campaigners, not all of them share the same feelings of hope for a successful transition to democracy under the present military government. Egyptian demonstrator Ammie P. said: “We’re all here today celebrating but in Tahrir square there are still a lot of protesters staying until they have the amendments to the constitution and all the reforms that were promised by the new military rulers. Unfortunately, although I share the hope of Egypt and my fellow Egyptians, I don’t trust the army, because they have their own interests.”

According to Amnesty International, the Egyptian revolution has marked not only the beginning of a change in Egypt but also for the Middle East and North Africa. Trade unionists and human rights campaigners representing other countries were part of the celebration on Friday and many of them think the Egyptian revolution is likely to be the first event of a domino effect in the Middle East.

Photo by Adrian Pablo