CAIRO: Egypt accepted 21 out of 25 recommendations for human rights reforms made to it by members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) on Friday as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, when HRC members states’ human rights records are reviewed.
This follows the Egyptian government’s acceptance of 119 recommendations during the HRC’s February session when it also rejected 21 recommendations and deferred consideration of the 25 recommendations discussed on Friday.
Head of the Egyptian delegation to the HRC Mofid Shehab, minister for parliamentary and legal affairs, told the HRC that Egypt has witnessed “unprecedented political movement” recently. He listed what he described as “important developments”, such as the limitation of the powers enjoyed by security bodies under the emergency law, the enactment of an anti-human trafficking law and the drafting of a law on the rights of people with disabilities.
Egypt “partially” accepted five of the 21 recommendations it accepted. These recommendations concern visits by UN special rapporteurs and amendment of the much criticized law governing NGO activity.
Shehab said that some recommendations could not be accepted because of their incompatibility with domestic law, giving the example of the recommendation for abolition of the death penalty.
Both state and NGO representatives spoke during Friday’s session.
The representative of the United Kingdom noted that Egypt pledged to end the state of emergency in February, but that it was renewed in May. He also called on the government to follow up on cases of torture and ensure freedom of expression for journalists and bloggers.
The United States representative expressed concern about the killing of migrants on the border with Israel as well as “Egypt’s characterization of the reasons for its imprisonment of bloggers”.
The continuing detention without charge of Mosaad Abu Fagr, a writer and Bedouin rights activist, and Hany Nazeer, a blogger, was condemned in a number of interventions.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and the Forum for Independent Egyptian Human Rights Organizations said that assertions by the government that emergency powers are not used against net users “are not accurate”.
The joint statement by Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said that Friday’s UPR review was “timely given the continued deterioration of the human rights situation in Egypt”.
“Reliance on sweeping repressive measures sends the message that the government sees itself as above the law,” the statement read, going on to condemn the culture of “pervasive impunity” towards those who violate the law.
The joint statement deplored the renewal of the state of emergency and called for the 5,000 to 10,000 detainees currently being held under the emergency law to be either charged or released.
The Egyptian National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) also made the same demand as well as calling for the abolition of the state of emergency, a unified law governing places of worship and for NGOs and the NCHR to be able to participate in the drafting of reforms to the NGO law.
Numerous statements condemned alleged incidents of fraud during the recent Shoura Council (upper house of parliament) elections and called on the government to protect freedom of expression for journalists and bloggers.
Responding to some of these points, Shehab criticized what he labeled “general judgments not based on accurate figures”.
The minister said that while the government had promised to end the state of emergency in February “as soon as possible” and on condition that the counter-terrorism draft law is ready.
“We need exceptional laws either under a state of emergency or a counter terrorism law,” Shehab said, adding that 453 detainees held under the emergency law were recently released.
Shehab rejected allegations that Mosaad Abu Fagr, Hany Nazeer and activist Tareq Khedr — who has been in detention for over five months without trial — are prisoners of conscience.
“The names mentioned were not dealt with as holders of opinions but as a result of having committed crimes under penal code. We have over 30,000 blogs in which anything can be written without being held to account by anybody,” Shehab said.
Shehab stressed the “robust dialogue” which took place during two consultative meetings held between the government and Egyptian NGOs between February and June.
The minister added that an ad hoc legal committee has been formed to review the current definition of torture in Egyptian legislation and that a new law on sexual harassment is currently being drafted.
In response to a statement criticizing the failure to abolish custodial sentences for offences committed by journalists, Shehab said that a review of the penal code is currently being undertaken to “look into repealing a number of press offences”.
“I don’t claim that we are as perfect as we would like to be, but we have huge aspirations,” Shehab told the HRC.
