Position grants Egypt influence over civil liberties discourse
In a move that is already making waves, Egypt was appointed to the advisory board of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC).
Cairo faces criticism from civil liberties organizations for attacks on human right and press freedoms since its president, Abdel Fatteh Al-Sissi, came to power in 2013.
The body which preceded the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Human Rights, was dismantled and replaced precisely because of the number of its members who represented governments with poor human rights records. Since its formation in 2006 the HRC has been the subject of similar criticism, notably just three months ago when Saudi Arabia assumed the position of chair on the Consultative Group.
The HRC is comprised of 47 members and is tasked with advising the UN General Assembly on all matters related to human rights. In the past, the body has examined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and human rights in Sri Lanka, Iran, Libya, Syria and North Korea.
Egypt’s permanent representative, Amr Ramadan, was appointed to join the five-member committee known as the Consultative Group which advises the HRC and selects civil liberties investigators to consult for its work.
He will serve alongside representatives from Thailand, Brazil, France and Albania during 2016.
“The Consultative Group plays a monumental role because it interviews candidates seeking to become UN human rights experts, and plays the initial and principal role in their selection,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told The Media Line. Although the five members’ choices have to be ratified by the HRC their decisions are rarely overturned, giving them real power, Neuer suggested.
He added that it is possible the Egyptian representative will become the chairperson of the group next year.
Egypt’s Sisi came to power in a coup d’etat which removed the country’s first and only democratically elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. Many Egyptians had become disillusioned with Morsi following his imposition of policies which were regarded as overtly Islamist, and subsequently during wide spread streets protests the army stepped in.
However, the brutality with which the army restored order alarmed many. The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned and Morsi, who was sentenced to death, is in jail. Hundreds of Egyptians died in clashes that followed the coup and thousands were arrested. The country’s judiciary is accused of being subservient to the president’s office and the wide-scale use of mass trials has been condemned internationally. Journalists in particular have suffered a severe curtailment of their right to work freely.
John Fisher, director of Human Rights Watch’s Geneva office told The Media Line his organization, “obviously is deeply concerned about Egypt’s continuing crack-down on civil society, human rights and press freedoms, and the use of mass trials.” At the same time, it is understood that Amr Ramadan, not Egypt, is being appointed to the position, Fisher explained. The five-members of the Consultative Group are appointed as individuals and are expected to work for the betterment of human rights, rather than the whims of their own government.
“We expect all members will discharge their functions fairly,” Fisher stated, arguing that generally speaking representatives had worked towards enhancing human rights rather than their own government’s agenda in the past.
Ramadan’s appointment would sit better if Egypt were to improve its conduct at home though, he added.
This is a notion not shared by UN Watch. A statement on the non-governmental organizations websites suggested that, “Members are in frequent contact with, and generally reflect the views of, their respective regional groups — and in certain documented cases they even abuse their positions on the CG to subvert the integrity of the selection process and advance their own government’s preferred candidates.”