The failure of the Egyptian government to uphold its obligations according to the constitution and international law was subject to wide criticism during the interactive dialogue on the adoption of the UPR Report of Egypt on March 12 during the session of Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review outcome within the activities of the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Egyptian government has continued to commit violations throughout its UPR process, blatantly disregarding UN and member state recommendations while at the same time undermining the UPR process, threatening to turn it into a farce.
As underscored by CIHRS at the Council, not only does the Egyptian government continue to amplify its already unprecedented levels of repression in the country, it disingenuously attempts to deceive or mislead the Council about human rights conditions in Egypt. CIHRS urged states to scrutinize the government’s misleading claims about human rights when following up on the recommendations they made during the UPR process.
The disparity between the Egyptian government’s claims, in contrast to the reality of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country, was highlighted in three joint interventions delivered by CIHRS, the first of which was delivered by CIHRS on behalf of the Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights, comprised of independent Egyptian human rights organizations that worked together to make a joint submission to the process. The three interventions emphasized the Egyptian government’s continued perpetration of grave violations and abuses in spite of the recommendations it has received from the council’s member states (372 recommendations) within the UPR mechanism for its two rounds in November 2019 and March 2020.
- UN Human Rights Council- 43rd Session
- Item 6 – UPR Outcome, Egypt
- Oral Intervention: Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
- March 12, 2020
Delivered by: Jeremie Smith
Madam President,
This statement is delivered by CIHRS in cooperation with the Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights, comprised of independent NGOs.
Countries from throughout the world made it clear during the UPR of Egypt that they are alarmed by the unprecedented levels of repression ongoing in the country. Many recommended that Egypt end the use of counter-terrorism laws to violate basic human rights, and end attacks against human rights defenders, including reprisals for cooperation with the United Nations.
After these recommendations, the same grave and widespread rights violations have continued in Egypt during the UPR process, while Egypt denies that any such abuses occur within the country. Such patently false claims not only reveal the Egyptian government’s lack of political will to address these violations but also threaten to turn the UPR process into a farce.
For example, on 23 November 2019, Coptic rights defender Ramy Kamel was arrested and tortured a few days before his scheduled departure to participate in the UN Forum on Minority Issues. He was charged with joining and financing a (unnamed) terrorist group.
In reality, Egypt’s counter-terrorism legislation is systematically used to legitimize its ongoing campaign to silence and eradicate independent civil society, journalists and political parties through brutal and widespread human rights violations. It is broadly cited to justify a vast campaign to silence all peaceful dissent.
It is also used as a pretext for not addressing the unjust and deadly prison conditions in Egypt, where torture, degrading treatment, medical neglect and inhumane conditions have led to many deaths in detention, including Egyptian-American Mustafa Qassem in January 2020. This has compelled many detainees to stage hunger strikes—risking their own lives—as a last resort.
If Egypt is unwilling to even acknowledge this reality during the UPR process, then UN member states must ensure action by the Human Rights Council to address the human rights crisis in the country.
Thank you.
One such misleading claim by the Egyptian government, underscored in a joint intervention by CIHRS and the Defend Defenders Network, is its claim that it views acts of intimidation or reprisal against those who cooperate with the HRC and its mechanisms as “wholly unacceptable. Yet the Egyptian government commits these “wholly unacceptable” acts against its own citizens – with increasing frequency – for engaging with UN human rights mechanisms, practicing a “pattern of reprisals” identified in a report by the UN Secretary General. These reprisals include prosecution and detention, travel bans, smear campaigns, and other violations or acts of intimidation and violence.
- 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council
- Item 6: Adoption of the report on the UPR of Egypt
- Joint Oral Intervention: Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and DefendDefenders
- March 12, 2020
Delivered by: Nicolas Agostini
Madam President,
During its UPR, the Government of Egypt has maintained that it supports the free functioning of independent civil society organizations (CSOs). This is at variance with the truth.
CSOs are subject to highly restrictive legislation. In the context of case No.173 of 2011 (the “Foreign Funding Case”) Egyptian CSOs and human rights defenders (HRDs) remain under a multitude of restrictions stifling their activity: at least 28 travel bans, 10 asset freezes against HRDs and 7 against CSOs.
Egypt should immediately end reprisals against HRDs and allow them to travel and participate freely in UN proceedings. On 23 April 2020, a court ruling is expected on travel bans; it is crucial for the ruling to bring justice to HRDs.
Civil society at large is under the chilling effect of a sharp escalation of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of HRDs, like Zyad el-Elaimy and WHRD Mahienour el Massry, within a vast crackdown on peaceful dissent. Minority rights advocates, from LGBT rights defenders Malak el Kashef and Eman el Helw, to Coptic rights defender Ramy Kamel, have not been spared. Egypt received dozens of recommendations to address unlawful detentions; attacks against freedoms of expression, assembly and association; restrictions on civil society, and reprisals against HRDs.
Egypt’s use of torture and ill-treatment in detention was also addressed in the UPR. More than ten countries called on Egypt to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment against detainees and hold perpetrators accountable. Renowned HRDs including Mohamed el Baqer, Alaa Abdelfattah, Patrick Zaki, Ramy Kamel and WHRDs Ms Esraa Abdelfattah and Solafa Magdy were victims of torture and abuse. The trend is now enforced disappearance before detention; HRD Ibrahim Ezz-el-din, also tortured, did not reappear before 167 days.
Yet Egypt’s attacks against human rights norms and protections do not stop at home. They do not stop at this Council (with attempts to redefine concepts, occupy the space, dilute State obligations, and justify rights violations). Egypt’s destructive behaviour now extends to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
In April 2019, at the NGO Forum organised ahead of the ACHPR’s 64th session in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egyptian authorities placed severe restrictions on participants, denying visas, threatening and intimidating HRDs, forcing the conference centre and hotels to demand exorbitant fees to hold side events, and cutting access to the Internet. Egyptian security agents even physically assaulted two South Sudanese WHRDs.
This behaviour is in clear violation of Article 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Guidelines on Freedom of Association and Assembly of the African Commission. The Commission’s Chair expressed regret and apologies to civil society; however, Egypt’s attacks against the integrity of the Commission and its mandate continue.
African States should stand up to Egypt’s anti-rights agenda, both on the continent and here in Geneva.
Thank you for your attention.
Travel bans are not only used by the Egyptian government as a means of reprisal, they also prevent human rights defenders and others from engaging actively in the UPR process. At the time of the UPR review process, at least 37 human rights defenders were subjected to travel bans and therefore unable to engage actively in the UPR, detracting from the integrity and credibility of the process, as recalled by CIHRS in an intervention with FIDH.
- 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council
- Item 6 Adoption of the report on the UPR of Egypt
- Joint Oral Intervention: CIHRS – Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights
- 12 March 2020
Delivered by: Manon Karatas
Madam President,
FIDH and the Cairo Institute are concerned that Egypt’s responses misleadingly claim that it already protects HRDs and respects the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
Months after the arbitrary arrest of at least 2300 persons during anti-government protests in September 2019, we are appalled to read that, as an excuse to reject key recommendations calling for the release of individuals detained for exercising their rights and those calling for the revision of laws used for this purpose, including counter-terrorism and cybercrime laws, the government claims that these recommendations are “factually incorrect”. This false claim is characteristic of Egypt’s engagement with the UPR and other UN human rights mechanisms. [During the review, Egypt mentioned a 2018 visit by the Special Rapporteur on Housing to reiterate its commitment to continuing positive cooperation with HRC mechanisms. No mention was made of the acts of reprisals carried out against the persons who interacted with the Special Rapporteur, which prompted [Special Procedures] mandate holders to stop carrying out visits to Egypt altogether[1]. The government has rejected the decision as scheduling and budget issues instead.]
While Egypt affirms that acts of intimidation or reprisal are wholly unacceptable, the Secretary General[2] and Special Procedures mandates[3] identified Egypt as practicing “a pattern of reprisals” against those who cooperate with the UN. At the time of the review, at least 37 HRDs were subjected to travel bans, many of them due to criminal cases filed against them on the basis of their participation in a previous UPR process.
Egypt also claims that “any forms of legally unjustified deprivation of liberty are prohibited in all circumstances.” Yet, Egypt currently detains hundreds of peaceful government critics including journalists, former parliamentarians, academics, lawyers and human rights and democracy activists. They were subjected to enforced disappearance, held incommunicado for weeks and months in unknown locations, without any legal justification, and charged under broadly worded offenses.
If Egypt refuses to address these serious human rights concerns through the UPR, we urge the Council to take urgent action to address the serious human rights violations taking place in Egypt.
[1] Egypt: UN experts alarmed by treatment of human rights defenders after visit, 4 December 2018
[2] A/HRC/42/30 – Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights – Report of the Secretary-General
[3] Egypt: UN experts alarmed by treatment of human rights defenders after visit, 4 December 2018
CIHRS further underscored that the government’s claims that “any forms of legally unjustified deprivation of liberty are prohibited in all circumstance” are at complete odds with a reality in which hundreds of peaceful critics of the government are detained on an unjustified legal basis, including journalists, politicians and former parliamentarians, academics, lawyers and human rights and democracy activists since November 2019 alone. This is in addition to thousands of other detainees held on flimsy legal grounds or sentenced to prison terms after grossly unfair trials. Detainees are often subjected to severe violations in prison, including torture, medical negligence, and inhumane and unsanitary conditions.
The oral intervention delivered on behalf of the Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights discussed Egypt’s systematic use of anti-terrorism legislation to legitimize the ongoing campaign to silence and eradicate independent civil society and confront journalists and political parties, and to justify a broad campaign to silence all voices of peaceful opposition, as well as using it as a pretext for a failure to improve the deteriorating and deadly conditions of detention in Egypt. An earlier oral intervention by CIHRS at the UN Council session also highlighted the Egyptian government’s record of exploiting counterterrorism as a façade to mask restrictions on basic freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of religion, in response to the report of the Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism issued during this session, which discussed in part a file on combating terrorism in Egypt and respect for human rights.
- UN Human Rights Council – 43rd Session
- Item 3 ID with SR on Counter-terrorism
- Oral Intervention: Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
- March 4, 2020
Delivered by: Jeremie Smith
We welcome the latest report of the Special Rapporteur.
We share her concerns over the absence of human rights based monitoring and evaluation of State and UN policies and practices aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism, as well as her concerns on State policies that violate fundamental rights and freedoms, especially freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
As the Special Rapporteur identifies, many states have taken advantage of the loosely defined concepts of extremism, violent extremism and terrorism to adopt laws and measures designed to silence criticism of their policies or weaken political opponents.
Such practices are harmful and counterproductive as they violate international law and run counter to the UN’s global counterterrorism strategy with its emphasis on the importance of protecting human rights.
For example, in Egypt, activists and non-violent government critics are facing terrorism charges, leading to the imprisonment of defenders, journalists and former parliamentarians. While a highly securitized war against terrorism has cost many civilian lives, as well as casualties among the security forces, it achieved little visible progress in preventing terrorist incidents. Rather than countering terrorism and extremism, Egypt’s policies have fueled a continuing cycle of political violence.
As noted in the joint other letter by seven mandate-holders to Egypt, despite the repeated communications by UN experts on these issues, the Egyptian government has not changed its laws or practice.
Madam Special Rapporteur, what other measures can the UN and States take to urge the Egyptian government to end its policy of systematically violating human rights, including economic and social rights, under the guise of countering terrorism?
Thank you.
