Egyptian human rights organizations and dissidents are expressing a wary optimism towards Egypt joining the United Nations Human Rights Council. Egypt became one of the new African members, along with Angola, Madasgascar, and South Africa, of the council last Wednesday, easily winning a strong victory in the United Nations General Assembly, where it collected 168 out of a total of 192 votes.
This success came at the same time as protests by human rights organizations against Egypt joining the council due to widespread and persistent human rights violations under Mubarak’s government. UN Human Rights Watch, a UN watchdog agency based in Geneva, spearheaded a campaign decrying Egypt’s nomination. Local human rights groups protested as well. Three days before the voting on May 14, 19 of them sent a letter to the UN, in which they stated that “the Egyptian government’s record is full of serious human rights violations that have been practiced widely for years and that it would hamper its role in improving human rights conditions worldwide.
While human rights activists are highly skeptical of the government’s declaration that it will live up to its new obligations, they were nonetheless reluctantly optimistic to Egypt’s new position. “This will be a positive step, Hafez Abu Saada, secretary general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, said to The Daily Star Egypt, “We can use this as an argument for greater human rights in Egypt. We can now go to the government and say that they have obligations and commitments they must fulfill. The government wants to change its image, not the situation, before the international community. We must take this opportunity to pressure the government to make this cosmetic change into a real one. Yet he was skeptical as well, stating that, “all of us know that the voting in this council does not mean that Egypt has a clean record in human rights. Only four countries in Africa are running, there is no competition [for seats].
Other activists were less enthusiastic. “There is much lying about this news, Hosam Bahgat, president of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said. “The government says that Egypt is joining the Human Rights Council because the world trusts the government and its human rights records, but this is not true. It is joining because it is the only country running in North Africa and there is no competition. But Bahgat also echoed Abu Saada’s wary optimism, saying that he hopes that the government will carry out its new obligations in spite of its past poor record.
Boutros Ghali, former secretary general of the United Nations and serving president of the National Council for Human Rights, a commission created by the Egyptian government, was far more cheerful. In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, he said that Egypt’s membership of the council will make it more committed to supporting steps towards political reform and strengthening the path of human rights. He also alleged that the arguments seeking to diminish the importance of the human rights council stem from the United States, because it wishes to place the council under the United Nations Security Council where it can better control it.
While these leaders all look to a better future, the Egyptian government’s past remains all too clear. The Egyptian government has come under repeated criticism from human rights organizations, including those listed above, for arbitrarily detaining and torturing its citizens, rigging elections, imprisoning journalists, and other rights violations. While all are hopeful that this membership will represent a significant break with that past, few are too confident it will happen soon.
