25 NGOs urge UK to address Egypt’s human rights at UNHRC session

A coalition of 25 human rights organizations have sent a letter to the United Kingdom government, calling on it to lead other countries in addressing Egypt’s human rights record at an upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council session.

Moves made by Egypt’s authorities over recent years to improve human rights conditions are “largely insufficient or cosmetic,” said the letter.

But Mahmoud Shalaby, who leads research on Egypt at Amnesty International, one of the signatories of the letter, told Mada Masr that “evidence shows the Egyptian government responds to international pressure,” expressing hope that political moves could bring about improvement.

The letter, directed at UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, said that the human rights situation in Egypt “continues to deteriorate” and called on the UK to lead a joint statement on Egypt during the 58th session of the UNHRC, which begins today and ends on April 5.

The letter pointed to the continued arbitrary arrests in recent years of  journalists, opposition politicians, relatives of dissidents, peaceful protesters and critics of the government’s handling of the economic crisis, as well as laws targeting human rights activists and the prolonged imprisonment of writer and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah.

“Given the scale of human rights issues in the country and the government’s continued cosmetic initiatives, sustained international pressure is essential, ideally by establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism on the human rights situation in Egypt at the UN Human Rights Council,” Shalaby told Mada Masr.

The letter also criticized Egyptian lawmakers steadily approving the articles of the “alarming” criminal procedures bill currently in Parliament, despite repeated internal and external calls on the Egyptian authorities to review it, including a recent communication from UN human rights experts.

It highlighted the continued imprisonment of Abd El Fattah, who holds British citizenship, beyond his five-year prison sentence that was supposed to end in September 2024, “particularly given the terrible and urgent risk to the life and health of his 68-year-old mother Laila Soueif, who as you know has been on hunger strike since then.”

The signatories urged the UK government to lead the statement at the rights council session as a way of highlighting the importance of Abd El Fattah’s case and building on the UK’s previous calls for his release.

Shalaby expressed hope that international pressure could bring about changes, pointing to an instance in 2021 when 32 states issued a joint statement on Egypt at the rights council.

In response, the authorities released several high-profile detainees, he said. “Yet thousands continue to languish behind bars.”

“The government also launched the National Strategy for Human Rights and the National Dialogue, but neither has resulted in any tangible reforms,” Shalaby explained.

The National Dialogue was launched in 2021 with the mission of opening the limited political scene in Cairo to a greater variety of political representatives.

Opposition figures participating in the dialogue demanded at the time that authorities release hundreds of political prisoners held in detention facilities.

The government reconvened the National Human Rights Council, which was tasked with presenting lists of candidates eligible for presidential amnesty. Yet many prisoners held for their political views remain behind bars.

The letter stressed that while human rights reforms over recent years have done little to change conditions on the ground, they demonstrate the Egyptian authorities’ interest in being seen as responsive to joint statements made by UN member states at the rights council.

This report was edited for Mada Masr by Emma Scolding.