** Statement from 31 countries against the human rights situation in Egypt.. What is the best response? **
– The day before yesterday, 31 countries issued a joint statement calling on Egypt to improve human rights conditions, release political prisoners, and stop trying them under anti-terror laws, among other demands.
– This statement is the first of its kind in 7 years as a collective action in the “Human Rights Council” of the United Nations, but it is not the first criticism in the recent period from large levels against the human rights situation in Egypt.
What is the reason for this statement? What does it mean? What are the expected reactions? This is what we will talk about in this post.
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What is the content of the statement?
– This statement was issued on Friday, and the statement was read by the Finnish ambassador to the Human Rights Council on behalf of the countries that issued it.
The most prominent signatories to the statement are France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and of course America, which is an observer in the current session of the Human Rights Council, and who has a new approach to human rights with its current president, Joe Biden. And who, its foreign ministry spokesman, Ned Price, said before that that there are unjustified restrictions on civil society and freedom of expression in Egypt.
No Arab or Islamic country signed the statement except for Bosnia, which is considered a European country, while even the countries that had problems between them and the Egyptian regime, such as Turkey and Qatar, were not signed on the statement.
– The content of the statement talks about serious and ongoing violations in Egypt against human rights and their defenders, and I talk in detail about the exploitation of anti-terrorism laws to imprison political activists, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders, and the statement also talks about minute details such as the policy of pretrial detention and “recycling” cases.
– The statement also talks about the continued travel ban on human rights activists, and the seizure of funds, which he would accept, through the laws of terrorism, and without any hope of a serious legal investigation that stops these procedures, which have been going on for 7 years, and it was mentioned what happened with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, It is true that its members were released after great international attention, but with a reservation on the Foundation’s funds.
– The statement dealt with almost the same points as the statement of the European Parliament issued in December, but it did not talk about specific names of the European Parliament.
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What are the official Egyptian reactions?
– The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded, and the statement was, as usual, saying that the statement was based on inaccurate and false information, and that it was politicized..etc.
– The Foreign Ministry statement this time was also in denial, that he said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would respond to every signatory country to the statement and talk about the most prominent human rights violations within it, and that no one has the right to assess the human rights situation in Egypt without mentioning the efforts that are being made It has Egypt in the field of human rights, and no country has perfection in human rights…. etc. normal performance.
It is expected that responses will be issued by the same parties that responded to the statement of the European Parliament 3 months ago, and it will include the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Future of the Nation Party and the rest of the parties to which orders will be issued, and who will say that this is interference in internal affairs, or repeating rumors of the terrorist group, and where Human rights in the West.
– But no one will ever respond to any rational explanation?
Why are these countries that all have very good relations with Egypt, and received President Sisi in their capitals, and we cooperate with them economically and politically in various files, so they demand these things?
The most important question is, are the facts that they say true or false?
Is it normal that you try citizens in an unfair way, and misuse the law by pretrial detention without trial for citizens for periods that reach years exceeding the law, and it is also possible that the same people be re-accused with the same accusations so that their detention is renewed more, as happened with the Al-Amal cell group, Khaled Dawoud and Abdel Al-Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Muhammad al-Qassas, Haitham Muhammaddin, Mustafa al-Aasar, Ola al-Qaradawi, Solafa Magdy, Hussam al-Sayyad, Muhammad Salah, Esraa Abd al-Fattah, and many other examples of political activists, human rights activists, or journalists imprisoned for years without trials or evidence. Renew it on paper or electronically after the last amendment.
– And this is what the government never rejects and does not say why do you try people in this way, and why are these people imprisoned without convicting them of anything, just people saying their opinion or demanding freedom, democracy and human rights, or basically doing nothing, so they are imprisoned for a period that no one knows about.
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Why can’t we answer like this?
– Some may imagine that there will be sanctions on Egypt after this statement, and despite the continuous condemnations of the Egyptian regime in the file of human rights, but arms deals from the West are continuing and complementary with America, France, Germany, Italy and others, and the regime in Egypt after every decision or statement in this form He rushes into various new economic deals, paying the Egyptians money in foreign exchange, debts and debt interests, or focusing on providing services that interest the West politically, such as combating irregular immigration, so when will we buy silence on the human rights problem?
– Of course, there is no country that deals with human rights for the sake of God, and it is certain that politics, of course, has interests that push the leaders of large and influential countries to pressure a government sometimes or ignore it sometimes, and with the same logic, countries that do not move the international community, they must play by the rules that really benefit them, that is why For example, Saudi Arabia recently made many concessions to the Biden administration, by releasing some political detainees, and by amending tyrannical or restrictive laws, and these are matters that cost a small amount to any sane country and less than the cost of paying economic or political costs or bearing sanctions or Western pressures.
– Therefore, since the file is a burden on the state, both externally and internally, try to try a new policy that is more rational in dealing with this file internally and externally, that is, once the law is implemented in the detainees in pretrial detention, and torture is prohibited in places of detention, and prison regulations are applied to the inmates, many problems will be solved. Who are you criticizing, and surely this is the best thing to say, I will make a report for each country, and the easiest thing is that you take steps and everyone will notice them, and whoever attacks you now, you will not find all these excuses to attack.
Egypt is currently in dire need of American and European intervention in the file of the Renaissance Dam, whether by direct pressure on Ethiopia to stop the next filling of the dam in July, whose effects will be devastating on Egypt and Sudan, or even by turning a blind eye to Egypt and Sudan if we are forced to reach the stage of military action against Ethiopia, the same Egyptian need exists in other files such as the Mediterranean gas and the great suffocation against it that has been going on for years, and the same words Egypt needs in the West with regard to loans, foreign investments, or vaccines, because Egypt cannot afford the cost of living isolated from the world.
Thus, the easiest and simplest logic for any sane political system is that it compromises on releasing people imprisoned for injustice and perpetrators of crimes, but the incomprehensible, illogical and irrational is the insistence on wasting citizens’ rights in favor of a security policy only.
– Here we are speaking with pragmatic and utilitarian logic, without talking about the necessity of democracy or human rights and the rule of law and justice in any society as long as the regime and the government consider this to be unrealistic and not appropriate for them.
All the statements that will come out and the media who will spread the word to the West, and all these denials, will not replace the optimal response to these grievances, which is simply to stop these arbitrary security policies.
– He is still waiting for a sane party to take a logical step in this file, and although it is the same regime that has tried more than once when it has released detainees in recent years, whether on amnesty lists or others, the reactions will be positive and hopeful for more, and those who release countries they do not represent No danger to anything.
We wish, for once, that the regime thinks rationally and resolves this crisis, and restores consideration to the law, the independence of the judiciary, the courts, and justice, instead of arrogant statements that the regime itself knows is a bang in the air.
– Observing human rights is something that is in the interest of Egyptians first and foremost, and it will be reflected in our lives before anyone else, and we should not wait for outside parties to pressure us and use the file for political purposes.
– And as we always say democracy and human rights their material cost is simple and negligible, but the price of dictatorship and authoritarianism is very great and we pay the price over and over again from our economy, our lives, our lives and our freedoms.
