URU, Alm.del - 2021-22 - Bilag 110: Henvendelse af 20. januar 2022 fra Amnesty International om situationen i Egypten

Udenrigsudvalget 2021-22
URU Alm.del Bilag 110
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January XX, 2022

Joint Letter by Members of Parliaments Urging the Establishment of a UN Human Rights Monitoring

Mechanism on Egypt

Dear Foreign Ministers,

Dear Ambassadors to the UN Human Rights Council,

We, the undersigned members of parliaments, are writing to urge you to secure the establishment of a

UN human rights monitoring and reporting mechanism on Egypt, taking resolute action to that end at the

upcoming March 2022 session of the UN Human Rights Council.

We are extremely concerned about the

international community’s

persistent failure to take any

meaningful action to address

Egypt’s

human rights crisis. This failure, along with continued support to the

Egyptian government and reluctance to even speak up against pervasive abuses has only deepened the

Egyptian authorities’ sense of impunity.

Since the 2013 ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian authorities have been ruling

the country with an iron fist, brutally and systematically repressing all forms of dissent and severely

curtailing civic space. The Egyptian authorities have arbitrarily detained thousands of perceived dissidents,

including scores of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and peaceful activists and opposition

politicians, including Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy, Zyad el-Elaimy, Ibrahim Ezz el-Din, Haytham Mohamdeen,

Hoda Abdelmoneim, Abdel Nasser Salama, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, and Mohamed al-Baqer, among

many others. Many are held in indefinite pre-trial detention or are serving sentences handed out following

grossly unfair trials, including by military courts and emergency courts whose judgements are not subject

to appeal. Those released are subjected to abusive extrajudicial measures by National Security Agency

officers to stifle any activism.

All this happens in a context of rampant torture by police and National Security Agency officers, which

according to the

UN Committee Against Torture

and NGOs is a systematic practice in the country.

Egypt’s

notoriously squalid prison conditions already claimed the lives of dozens since 2013, including former

president Morsi and film-maker Shady Habash.

The few remaining independent human rights organizations still able to operate in Egypt do so at great

risk; their activities are severely curtailed by a repressive NGO law, as well as travel bans, asset freezes,

and persistent harassment by security agencies and other institutional actors. Amid severe restrictions

and intimidations, local and international organizations continue to document a wide range of human

rights abuses by Egyptian authorities, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, the

arbitrary detention of women on

“morality” grounds,

the trial of children along with adults, the continued

crackdown on members of the LGBTI community, and the arrest and prosecution of members of religious

minorities over blasphemy charges, to name but a few.

Furthermore, in 2020 Egypt became

the world’s third top executioner,

with 107 recorded executions. In

2021, the execution spree continued with at least 83 recorded so far, including following grossly unfair

trials.

URU, Alm.del - 2021-22 - Bilag 110: Henvendelse af 20. januar 2022 fra Amnesty International om situationen i Egypten

Despite this devastating picture, the international community has by and large limited its reaction to rare,

occasional statements of concern at the UN Human Rights Council. Such statements often start by

acknowledging

Egypt’s

role for regional security, stability and migration management, concerns that its

international partners seem to have largely privileged over

–

and arguably at the expense of

–

the

fundamental rights of people in Egypt, in a false dichotomy of stability versus human rights which we

reject in the strongest possible terms. Likewise, public statements made by officials in high-level visits and

in bilateral meetings often praise the government at any cost.

We take note of some recent modest steps taken or announced by the Egyptian authorities, yet regret

that these steps hardly constitute anything more than an effort to whitewash their dismal human rights

record, and are unlikely to have any significant impact on

Egypt’s

human rights crisis.

The new

“national

human rights strategy”, drafted in an untransparent manner and without consultation

with independent human rights organizations, overlooks grave past and ongoing human rights concerns

such as the prolonged arbitrary detention of peaceful critics, enforced disappearances, and torture in

detention facilities, and it fails to identify concrete steps to hold those responsible to account. Instead,

the strategy blames lack of awareness by Egyptian people, political parties and civil society for the current

human rights crisis.

After the lifting of the state of emergency, the Egyptian parliament passed a series of emergency-law-like

provisions expanding military courts’ jurisdiction over civilians and further undermining the right to

information, which de facto have only further and permanently entrenched the state of emergency into

Egypt’s legal system.

Furthermore, the Emergency State Security Courts have sentenced opposition MP

and human rights lawyer Zyad el-Elaimy, journalists Hossam Moaness and Hisham Fouad, activist Alaa

Abdel Fattah, human rights lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer,

and blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim,

and will

continue to rule on cases already referred to them, including those of Patrick Zaki, Hoda Abdelmoneim,

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh and many more.

The latest release of prisoners to reduce prison overcrowding excluded countless human rights defenders

and political activists. Finally, while the release of activists Ramy Shaath and Ramy Kamel is indeed

welcomed, this should not distract from the thousands of political prisoners who remain in arbitrary and

unjust detention.

While largely cosmetic, these small developments are a sign that the Egyptian authorities are sensitive to

international pressure as they follow the March 2021 Finland-led cross-regional

statement

on Egypt at

the UN Human Rights Council

–

remarkably, only the second such statement since President Abdel Fattah

al-Sisi came to power,

despite his government’s

sustained, widespread and systematic abuses. The

previous one, in

2014,

ultimately failed to secure lasting human rights change in the country, also due to

a lack of collective follow-up by UN member states. This must not reoccur.

The March 2021 joint statement should not remain a one-off gesture. We urge you to increase your

outreach to partner countries in order to build momentum within the UN Human Rights Council for the

establishment of a long overdue monitoring and reporting mechanism on Egypt,

while also significantly

increasing pressure on the Egyptian authorities through your bilateral relations to resolutely address

Egypt’s human rights crisis and

secure meaningful progress.

Yours faithfully,