HRW: UN should condemn worsening abuses in Egypt

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement today calling on the UN to condemn “worsening abuses” in Egypt. The statement cited the UN Human Rights Council’s upcoming November 5 review of Egypt as an opportunity for the UN to condemn “the most dramatic reversal of human rights in Egypt’s modern history under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.”

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is an opportunity for UN member nations to show what steps they have taken to protect human rights and to receive recommendations from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The UPR occurs every four years, and Egypt last participated in a UPR in 2010 when it committed to implementing 119 of the UN’s 165 recommendations.

The HRW statement specifically condemned Egypt’s upcoming crackdown on NGOs and its controversial Protest Law that has resulted in the detention and jailing of many activists, including Alaa Abd Al Fattah and Yara Sallam, a researcher for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

The Egyptian government has set a November 10 deadline for NGOs to register under what HRW classifies as a “restrictive 2002 law.” If the NGOs fail to register, they will be brought to court and face criminal charges.

HRW further condemned Sisi’s September amendment to the penal code which made the punishment for receiving foreign aid “with the intent of harming national interest” much more severe. Violators of the law can now receive a life sentence in prison and $US70,000 fine, or the death penalty if the violator is a public servant.

The statement said this law could be used to prosecute Egyptian rights organizations and activists, as many of them receive foreign funding and the law is very vaguely worded.

HRW further stated that the upcoming UPR should condemn the mass killings and arrests of Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi supporters both during and after the Rabea al-Adaweya protests in August 2013.

“The government has so far failed to hold anyone accountable for the security forces’ killing of thousands of pro-Morsi protesters in July and August 2013,” said the statement.

It added that by the government’s own estimate, 22,000 people have been arrested since July 2013 on suspicion of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“How many more human rights defenders need to leave the country or be silenced before the Human Rights Council tells Egypt to stop this crackdown?” Philippe Dam, the acting Geneva office director at HRW, said. “Countries that say they are committed to human rights need to hold Egypt to account and keep an even closer watch after the UPR is over.”

Mada Masr has previously reported on the local media’s trepidation of this year’s UPR.