The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council should condemn the dramatic reversal of human rights in Egypt, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on the organization’s official website Tuesday.
“Washington, London, Paris, and other capitals have failed to confront Egypt’s dramatic reversal of human rights. They should make clear that silencing independent groups will hurt Egypt’s relations with its allies,” the HRW press service quoted Acting Geneva Office Director at Human Rights Watch Philippe Dam as saying, RIA Novosti reported.
“How many more human rights defenders need to leave the country or be silenced before the Human Rights Council tells Egypt to stop this crackdown?” Dam said. “Countries that say they are committed to human rights need to hold Egypt to account and keep an even closer watch after the UPR is over,” he added.
HRW has urged the UN Human Rights Council to make Egypt revoke the peaceful protests ban and to release those incarcerated for voicing their opinion and participating in protest rallies.
On October 26, 23 people were sentenced in Cairo to three years in prison for participating in a protest rally against the law.
According to HRW, many Egyptian human rights defenders have already left the county fearing prosecution, as at least 22,000 people have been imprisoned since July 2013, some of them simply for alleged membership in the Muslin Brotherhood, the biggest opposition movement in the county.
Another Egyptian law that needs to be revoked, according to the HRW, is the one adopted in 2002 obliging NGOs to register or face criminal charges. On September 21, the Egyptian authorities have amended the country’s penal code, increasing the penalty for receiving foreign funding with the intent to “harm the national interest” to life imprisonment and a US$70,000 fine, or even a death sentence in case the recipient is a public servant.
The UN Human Rights Council is set to review the human rights situation in Egypt on November 5.
