Press Release
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies hosted a meeting earlier this morning where Independent NGOs from the Egyptian Human Rights Forum discussed possible ways to prepare for Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) with representatives of 15 Countries. Egypt’s UPR is scheduled to take place at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on the 17th of February 2010.
The meeting which lasted two hours covered three main topics primarily an overview of the joint report written by members of the Human Rights Forum (16 independent NGOs) and sent to the UN Human Rights Council. Secondly a representative from the Forum provided the attendees with commentary regarding the report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by the Egyptian Government, and finally, an overview of the recommendations proposed by the NGOs for the government was given.
It is worth noting that The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies had invited the Director of the Department of Human Rights within the Egyptian Foreign Ministry as well as the Minister of Legal Affairs, who are responsible for dealing with the topic of Egypt’s UPR, to meet with the Human Rights Forum in order to discuss the government’s report. Unfortunately, one of them did not respond to the invitation, while the other apologized and stated he was unable to attend despite the fact that there was no time scheduled for this meeting, thus he could pick one that best suited him.
The following states were represented in today’s meeting by diplomats from their respective embassies in Cairo:
Austria, The Argentine Republic, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, The United Kingdom of Great Britain, The United States of America.
Share this Post