Ambassador Alaa Rushdie, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Affairs and International Security, said that enhancing respect for human rights is a cumulative process, pointing out that Egypt is keen to benefit from international experiences and best practices in such issues.
Rushdie added, during a speech at the “Human Rights … Building a Post-Pandemic World” conference, on Thursday, that the Permanent Higher Committee for Human Rights had studied the recommendations that Egypt had received in the field of human rights from regional, international, and local entities.
He pointed to the committee’s keenness to exert more efforts to “enhance coordination, consultation, and cooperation to strengthen partnerships with civil society in order to give the necessary impetus to achieve coherence for all efforts aimed at promoting human rights.”
The ongoing conference will witness attendance of ministers, senior officials and representatives of United Nations organisations, in addition to the wide participation of civil society organizations working in the development field.
In March a statement issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) called on Cairo to lift curbs on freedoms of expression and assembly.
“We urge Egypt to guarantee space for civil society – including human rights defenders – to work without fear of intimidation, harassment, arrest, detention, or any other form of reprisal,” the statement read.
The UN statement, signed by 31 states and delivered by Finland at the UNHRC’s 46th session, also highlighted what it described as “the use of counterterrorism laws to punish peaceful critics.”
At the time, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry expressed “great surprise and disapproval” in reaction to the statement, which it said contained inaccurate and groundless information.
