Egypt: Government’s rights record under UN scrutiny and countries call for far-reaching reforms, as civil society denounces brutal repression

The fourth comprehensive review of Egypt’s human rights file before the United Nations in Geneva ended yesterday evening, Tuesday, 28 January, as part of the 48th session of the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. The review came after a week of warnings from Egyptian civil society of a new wave of repression and an intensification of the security campaign against civil society and fundamental rights in the country. The Egyptian authorities continue to spurn ensuring accountability for corruption and abuse of power while doubling down on their brutal repression with the aim of silencing dissent and dismantling any opportunity for genuine political or economic competition.

In the review session, the Egyptian government continued to deliberately deny all human rights violations referenced in reports by the UN  and  Egyptian and international organizations. The government contented itself with promoting ‘lofty’ initiatives, including the National Strategy, National Dialogue and the Amnesty Committee, while occluding the facts with dubious claims of reform that have no evidence of implementation on the ground.

A case in point, the proposed new Criminal Procedure Code has been widely criticized and rejected due to its blatant violation of fair trial guarantees, the rights of the accused and the defense, and its violation of Egypt’s constitution and international obligations. Nevertheless, the government representative claimed that the proposed law guarantees justice, and referred to several articles related to compensation for wrongful imprisonment, witness protection, and regulating the monitoring of telephone calls.  Yet at the same time the law would broadly empower the Public Prosecution to disrupt all the aforementioned procedures and others, without any controls or oversight. In addition, the law would authorize the prosecution to violate the right to privacy by monitoring correspondence and inspection, and to directly investigate the accused in the absence of their lawyer while preventing the lawyer from speaking during the investigation, except with permission of a member of the prosecution. The law further grants immunity to members of the prosecution and judicial inspection, thus serving to reinforce the pervasiveness of the crime of torture and ensure that those responsible for it evade accountability.

Similarly, the representative of the Public Prosecution in the government delegation claimed that the National Dialogue and the Amnesty Committee were the impetus behind the release of a large number of detainees, but he did not mention that those detained during the same period  drastically outnumber those released; with the detainees arbitrarily held on recurrent fabricated charges. Others were recycled into new cases as soon as they were released or as their sentences expired. The representative neglected to acknowledge those held in pretrial detention for periods exceeding its legal limit, despite claims that all files of pretrial detainees were under review. Some detainees, instead of being compensated for their prolonged detention, have recently been referred to terrorism courts. The prosecution’s representative further promoted new prisons as a government achievement, while ignoring the rampant ill-treatment and abuse of detainees in these prisons, to the extent that some attempted suicide or went on hunger strike. Although the representative claimed that detention facilities are periodically inspected and the complaints of detainees and their families are investigated, the testimonies documented by human rights organizations belie this claim, indicating that the Public Prosecution habitually and deliberately neglects to investigate claims of enforced disappearance, torture, and unjustified solitary confinement.

On the level of political participation, the government delegation considered the political parties law, which guarantees the right to establish a party with notification, as an indicator of freedom of political participation, while ignoring the opposition party leaders and politicians who are imprisoned simply for engaging in party or political work. The delegation celebrated the integrity of the presidential elections, during which the president’s competitors were imprisoned and their supporters prevented from even issuing authorizations. The government delegation further lauded the increasing number of newspapers, stations and news websites, failing to mention the hundreds of independent news websites remain blocked in Egypt simply because for expressing opposition or critique of the regime, and the dozens of journalists detained in retaliation for their work.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) prepared an analysis before the review, compiling the recommendations included in various civil society reports submitted to the United Nations. CIHRS’ analysis focused on the five main axes that the Egyptian government should prioritize to effectively address the country’s human rights crisis and its profound political and economic challenges. These axes include allowing political participation and free and fair elections; ensuring judicial independence and fair trials; ending torture, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention; stopping the brutal repression of civil society and free expression, and putting an end to discrimination and government violence against women and minorities.

An hour before the review session began, human rights organizations organized a seminar where a group of Egyptian human rights activists responded to the claims of the Egyptian government and its national report. The activists addressed the prevalence of torture and abuse of detainees in prisons, and the misuse of counterterrorism legislation to imprison journalists, politicians, and human rights defenders. The seminar featured human rights activist and mathematician Laila Soueif, who has been on hunger strike for 120 days and counting, in protest of her son Alaa Abdel Fattah’s extended detention. Although Alaa’s sentence ended in September 2024, the Egyptian government representative claimed in his speech that Alaa’s sentence ends in 2027, failing to mention that the authorities deliberately did not count his pretrial detention period as time served of his sentence, in violation of the law.  Alaa was prosecuted in an egregiously unfair trial before an exceptional court, in further retribution for his prominent pro-democracy and human rights activism. The seminar further included human rights lawyer Hoda Abdel Moneim’s daughter, Jihad Khaled, who addressed the ‘recycling’ of her mother into multiple case to ensure her detention is extended after her unjust sentence expires. Media figure Rasha Kandil, who is the wife of opposition politician Ahmed El-Tantaway, testified about the retaliatory practices against her husband, his campaign, and his supporters, because he dared to compete with the president in the presidential elections.

In the lead up to the UPR review, human rights organizations submitted several reports refuting the government delegation’s allegations and disproving most of the fabrications contained in its national report submitted to the United Nations. The organizations addressed the extent of the Egyptian government’s failure to implement the recommendations it accepted in the third UPR session in 2019. This was done through individual and joint reports documenting various violations over the past five years, conveying a general picture of the human rights situation. The organizations further submitted a mid-term report at the end of 2022, in the middle of the review period. These reports include specific recommendations that if implemented, would indicate that the Egyptian government genuinely possesses the political will to reform.

Numerous UN member states participating in the review session have already adopted a number of these recommendations and submitted them to the Egyptian government. At least twenty countries have recommended suspending the death penalty in preparation for its abolition, while others have called for Egypt to join the Optional Protocol against Torture (about ten countries) and investigate torture crimes committed in prisons and hold perpetrators accountable. The recommendations further included ratifying the Convention on Enforced Disappearance (over fifteen countries). Belgium, Austria and Australia further recommended ensuring fair trials, in addition to more than a dozen countries recommending an end to prolonged pretrial detention and the illegitimate practice of recycling, together with the release of arbitrarily detained persons. Numerous countries further adopted recommendations for legal reforms, including the review of counterterrorism legislation and the penal code; laws regulating free expression, the press, the media, and cybercrime, laws regulating civil society work, and laws related to combating discrimination against women.

The human rights situation in Egypt has deteriorated to a crisis unprecedented in its modern history. The Egyptian government has the capacity and authority to respond to these recommendations and take effective measures to improve the human rights situation; the fundamental obstacle lies in its lack of political will.

Signatory organizations:

• Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
• Ankh Association
• Committee for Justice
• Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)
• Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR)
• Egyptian Human Rights Forum
• EgyptWide for Human Rights
• Foundation for the Support of Law and Democracy
• Nadim Center
• Sinai Foundation for Human Rights