25 NGOs urge UK to address Egypt's human rights at UNHRC session

Mada

24-02-2025

A coalition of 25 human rights organizations have sent a letter to the United Kingdom government, calling on it to lead other countries in addressing Egypt's human rights record at an upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council session.
Moves made by Egypt's authorities over recent years to improve human rights conditions are 'largely insufficient or cosmetic,' said the letter.
But 'evidence shows that the Egyptian government responds to international pressure,' Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt Researcher at Amnesty International, one of the signatories of the letter, told Mada Masr, expressing hope that political moves could bring about improvement.
The letter, directed at UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, said that the human rights situation in Egypt 'continues to deteriorate' and called on the UK to lead a joint statement on Egypt during the 58th session of the UNHRC, which begins today and ends on April 5.
The letter pointed to the continuing arrest of critics and peaceful protesters, laws targeting human rights defenders and the prolonged imprisonment of writer and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, among other issues to address.
'Given the scale of human rights issues in the country and the government's continued cosmetic initiatives, sustained international pressure is essential, ideally by establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism on the human rights situation in Egypt at the UN Human Rights Council,' Shalaby told Mada Masr.
The letter highlighted the Egyptian state's ongoing arbitrary arrests in recent years of journalists, opposition politicians, relatives of dissidents, peaceful protesters, trade unionists, lawyers and critics of the government's handling of the economic crisis.
It also criticized Egyptian lawmakers steadily approving the articles of the 'alarming' criminal procedures bill currently in Parliament, despite repeated internal and external calls on the Egyptian authorities to review it, including a recent communication from UN human rights experts.
The letter also highlighted the continued imprisonment of Abdel Fattah, who holds British citizenship, beyond his five-year prison sentence that was supposed to end in September 2024, 'particularly given the terrible and urgent risk to the life and health of his 68-year-old mother Laila Soueif, who as you know has been on hunger strike since then.'
The signatories urged the UK government to lead the statement at the HRC session as a way of highlighting the importance of Abdel Fattah's case and build on the UK's previous clear calls for his release.
Shalaby expressed hope that international pressure could bring about changes, pointing to an instance in 2021 when 32 states issued a joint statement on Egypt at the HRC.
In response, the authorities released several high-profile detainees, he said, 'yet thousands continue to languish behind bars.'
'The government also launched the National Strategy for Human Rights and the National Dialogue, but none of them have resulted in any tangible reforms,' Shalaby explained.
The National Dialogue was launched in 2021 with the mission of opening the limited political scene in Cairo to a greater variety of political representatives.
Opposition figures participating in the dialogue had demanded at the time that authorities release the hundreds of political prisoners held in detention facilities.
The government reinvigorated the National Human Rights Council, which was tasked with presenting regular lists of candidates as eligible for presidential amnesty. Yet many prisoners held for their political views, including Alaa Abd El Fattah, remain behind bars.
The letter stressed that while human rights reforms over recent years have done little to change conditions on the ground, they demonstrate the Egyptian authorities' interest in being seen as responsive to joint statements made by UN member states at the HRC.