CAIRO: The current Egyptian government’s response to calls for improving human rights, when compared to the previous government, “is like night and day,” Salil Shetty, secretary general for Amnesty International, told Daily News Egypt Wednesday.
In his first visit to Egypt following the revolution, the head of Amnesty International cited progress in Egypt’s approach to human rights, but called on the country’s authorities to end the emergency law and military trials of civilians.
He warned that the continuance of the country’s emergency law and military trials is creating a “trust deficit between the people and the authorities,” and “casts a shadow over the seriousness of the government to create a new Egypt.”
“Emergency laws violate basic freedoms,” while trying civilians in military courts “is not compliant with fair trial standards,” Shetty explained, arguing that both of these issues are simply “not required in the current context in Egypt.”
Not only do military trials lack legitimacy, but the civilian judicial system also needs improvement, he added. “People are saying that it’s all about the military [trials], but it’s not. It’s also about the civilian judiciary. It is not delivering quickly enough, and people don’t believe that it is actually fair or independent. There needs to be an independent oversight body for the rule of law. Otherwise, there is a big trust deficit.”
In his meeting Wednesday morning with officials from Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shetty told DNE that he brought up the importance of accountability, truth, and justice, and that he plans to press these issues to the Deputy Prime Minster and officials from the interior ministry, whom he plans to meet later this week.
“The issue of [bringing] accountability for past [injustices] is very important before creating a new Egypt. You can’t really move forward without showing that you’ve fully done justice for the mistakes of the past. It sends a clear message to the people of Egypt that this is something of the past,” Shetty explained.
However, improving Egypt’s human rights situation and laying the groundwork for a future democratic system is not merely about adjusting the nation’s legal framework, he cautioned, but about “changing behaviors and practices.”
Striking a complimentary tone, Shetty went on to praise the new Egyptian government for “voluntarily” stepping up and expressing its commitment towards signing on to the International Criminal Court and Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture treaties, calling these announcements “music to our ears.”
Speaking on the country’s importance to the region, Shetty called on Egypt to emerge as a leading proponent of human rights in the Middle East. “We want the Egyptian government, which is a major regional power [who] in the past has not been at the forefront of human rights, to start taking progressive positions on these issues.”
Egypt, Shetty continued, remains somewhat reluctant to move forward with certain issues called for by Amnesty International, such as fully opening the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
According to Shetty, the Egyptian officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognized the importance of opening the border and “getting all of the fundamental issues inside of Gaza sorted,” but were “concerned with security issues … [and] legal issues concerning trade.”
However, Shetty attributed much of this reluctance to the government being relatively young, and merely “trying to figure things out,” citing the fact that the “political announcement [of the Rafah opening] was made by the new foreign minister only a couple days after he took charge.”
Moving away from the issue of political freedoms and human rights, Shetty concluded by offering a stern warning that unless Egypt addresses the rampant poverty and economic inequalities, the country is “basically sowing the seeds for another round of demonstrations and protests.”
“Egypt is not a poor country, it’s a middle income country that has resources. But because of the way in which power has been concentrated in the hand of a few people, the resources are distributed very unevenly,” he explained, adding that protests since January have been “intimately interconnected with high levels of poverty and inequality.”
If these issues are not addressed alongside the issue of political freedom, it will “come back to bite us,” he warned. What Egypt needs is “a clear comprehensive plan of action and some early signs of what practical changes we are making to address the right to adequate housing, food, water, and sanitation.”
“What we are seeing,” he lamented, “is the contrary,” referring to the Manshiyet Nasser slum hit by rockslides in 2008. “Almost nothing has happened there [since 2008]. People are being evicted without proper consultation. The response can’t be Law 23, which is criminalizing strikes. That’s not the answer to the problem. Address the causes.”
Bahrain
Turning to Bahrain and the life sentences handed down earlier Wednesday to eight Shia opposition figures, Shetty said that the Amnesty International team covering Bahrain recommends its strongest condemnation for the "unfair" and "politically motivated" trials and convictions.
“There is absolutely no evidence that there were any form of violent protests. These peaceful protesters have been given a very harsh treatment. There was actual torture in the case of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja. They had no access to lawyers. Civilians shouldn’t have been tried in military courts. Its politically motivated and this is totally unacceptable.”
Shetty went on to blast the Bahraini king’s call for a national dialogue, asking “how could they have a dialogue when they are arresting prominent opposition leaders, the very people he should be having the dialogue with.”
