By Jake Lippincott
According to a statement released on Monday, The Forum of Independent Human Rights Organisations (FIHRO), which represents 19 Egyptian human rights groups, presented a report on the state of human rights in Egypt to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The report was released in preparation for Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism within the UN which examines the human rights records of member nations every four and a half years and which is scheduled to begin in October 2014 in Egypt.
The report is just one step in the review process and according to UN rules, disclosure of specific details of the report is prohibited before the UPR is released.
However, according to Monday’s statement, the report covered the last four years in Egypt and was primarily concerned with the rights to life, economic justice and political participation and highlighted the “importance of accountability mechanisms, and whether they ensure the detection of perpetrators of [human rights] violators and hold them accountable.”
The report also covered “freedom of association and in Egypt, freedom of the press and freedom of opinion and expression, religious freedom and minority rights, the development of academic freedom … the state and the status of women in the public sphere, and the development of children’s rights in Egypt,” according to the statement.
