clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

The UN has exposed the failures of the state in terms of human rights in Egypt 

March 16, 2021 at 4:02 pm

Activists of human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) take part in a demonstration in Piazza Castello in Turin on January 25, 2020, to mark the fourth anniversary since the disappearance of Italian student Giulio Regeni. – Regeni [MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images]

A UN statement has been signed by 31 countries against Egypt’s human rights violations, and the reaction was to be expected. Egyptian state institutions and affiliated unions rejected the statement by various means, although all had the same content distributed from a central source to all involved with public issues.

Regardless of the international repercussions of this statement, which will not be immediate so as not to complicate the network of vested interests, it does expose the lack of credibility that Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s regime has in the eyes of the world. Human rights officials and organisations have more credibility than the regime, given the failures of the coup and the successes of the opposition in terms of media and human rights.

The UN has exposed the failures of the presidency, the foreign ministry, the judiciary, the security services, the media and the so-called popular delegations. The lack of first-rate political, diplomatic, and intellectual minds within the Egyptian state is evident. There is confusion and disagreement between state institutions, which made the Ministry of the Interior turn to Facebook to deny rumours of a dispute between the security services and the judiciary, which has lost its reputation.

READ: Egypt’s fascist policies against women cannot be covered up, opposition group says

On the diplomatic level, professional, technical and media shortcomings were evident when the foreign ministry submitted reports to the presidency downplaying the fact that some Scandinavian countries intend to issue a statement criticising Egypt for its human rights violations. The shock that the presidency, foreign ministry and intelligence agency could not recover from is that 31 countries, all of which call Egypt a friend and have strategic relations with Cairo, agree with this.

In terms of intelligence and security, the statement mentioned precise details of forced disappearances, solitary confinement, prison torture, unfair trials, and denying lawyers and defendants litigation rights. These are all issues relating to the security services, illustrating the severity of the repression in Egypt and the tight grip that they have on the people. The fact that such a statement can be issued suggests that those working in human rights, Western embassies, international organisations and international media maintain good relations with each other.

Countries as major as Germany and France signed the UN statement, despite the fact that the Egyptian government has spent billions of dollars on arms purchases from the West, at a time when the main concern should be the people of Egypt, who are suffering a severe decline in public services. This is especially true regarding education and healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic.

The UN has encouraged some human rights organisations and figures within Egypt who sided with the coup government out of fear and greed to report violations, especially the denial of legal rights to lawyers and defendants. This challenges the legality of the sentences issued and the legality of preventive detention that turns into a punishment without a trial.

It is important to stay on this path as, sooner or later, it will bear fruit. It will also raise the level of professionalism and integrity of organisations and figures in the business of developing relations with outside agencies.

READ: Egypt opposition says to US ‘Sisi has done worse than the murder of Khashoggi’

We should not underestimate these efforts to highlight human rights abuses. To do so benefits the regime and will lead to further tyranny and violations.

It is also vital that we all start to understand that Egypt needs all of its citizens at every level, regardless of the disrupted and fragmented ideology of “national unity”. In this sense, the Islamic movement needs to be more professional in order to catch up with trends in civil and secular society. What is most important is that the end result should support the rights of the state and its citizens.

There will be some who think that this is all worthless and will have no tangible result or effect. This is normal amongst the current older generation. However, the future generations that we depend on to make things better for everyone already think in a more open and comprehensive way; they have discarded tunnel vision and think in terms of blue sky rather than dark, enclosed rooms. They are the generation ready and able to communicate with the world, because they know that they are a part of this world.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.