CAIRO: The Arab Commission for Human Rights has blamed Egypt amongst other Arab countries for voting in favor of its one-year suspension from the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
The dispute began when Algeria filed a secret complaint against the NGO for allowing Rachid Mesli, of Alkarama NGO, to speak on its behalf in front of the UN Human Rights Council last June.
Alkarama tracks human rights violations in Algeria and furthermore, Mesli was charged of terrorism by Algeria in 1999 and is also on the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1267 terrorism list.
On Jan. 26, a total of 18 member states voted for the group’s suspension with one abstention. Amongst the countries that voted in favor of the group’s suspension were Egypt, Sudan, Qatar and Algeria.
The group would also have to submit a list of all its members to be considered for reinstatement in a year’s time. This motion was filed by Egypt.
The commission is currently part of a coalition of NGOs trying to bring Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes committed during its 22-day offensive on Gaza.
Spokesman for the commission Haytham Manna told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Egypt now had united with countries it had disagreed with over the handling of the Gaza crisis such as Qatar to stop the commission’s attempts to take Israel to the ICC.
“Egypt is against us because we have covered the military trials of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Qatar sees us as enemies due to the campaign that we launched with Al-Mora Bedouins and that enabled most of them to regain their lost nationality, he said.
“Algeria s representative at the UN Economic and Social Council has a personal problem with our representative at the United Nations. Moreover, we have made a report on torture in Algeria, he added, “As for Sudan; it fears that our pressure to prosecute Israeli leaders may affect the trial of the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir before the International Criminal Court.
The Arab Commission for Human Rights is a Paris-based group formed in 1998 with members from various Arab countries, including former editor of Al-Badeel Mohammed Sayed Said. It does not have any political affiliations.
