Is the reaction to the European Parliament's resolution criticising Egypt's human rights record a case of protesting too much, asks Gihan Shahine Egypt's reaction to last Thursday's EU resolution criticising Egypt's human-rights record has raised rather more eye-brows than those of human rights activists in Egypt. Many critics wondered why Egypt reacted so strongly when it could have pre-empted the whole crisis by holding bilateral talks with European MPs. The resolution, after all, is no tougher than any other issued by international human-rights organisations. Neither can it be seen as an intervention into Egypt's affairs since Egypt willingly signed the binding Barcelona Declaration in 1995 and, according to unofficial sources, receives Euros 30 million a year purportedly to improve human rights conditions and promote good governance. "The report contained no new findings," insists the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) Hafez Abu Seada. Much of the resolution's content had been widely reported by Egyptian newspapers and local human-rights organisations, including the first annual report of the government-affiliated National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). "The resolution is in many ways lenient on Egypt," says Seada, "welcoming efforts made by Egypt to secure the border with Gaza and encouraging the Egyptian government to honour its undertaking to lift the state of emergency by 31 May 2008... It's a pat on the government's shoulder." The resolution did not, he continues, refer to the mass detention of members of the Muslim Brotherhood or criticise the trials of its leaders. Instead the EU just "asks the Egyptian authorities to amend Law 25/1966 on martial courts". Egypt and the EU have strong economic and strategic ties which neither has appeared willing to jeopardise over human-rights issues. There is already a general feeling among human-rights activists that the US and the EU have since 2005 softened their positions on Egypt's democratisation and human rights record. "International reports on human rights conditions in Egypt," points out Bahieddin Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human-Rights Studies, "have declined in number in recent years." The official reaction to the EU resolution, believes Hassan, is a result of "perceived ingratitude on the part of both the EU and the US for all the strategic concessions Egypt has made over the past two years to secure their interests in the region, in Iran, Iraq and Palestine". Even mild criticism from abroad, he says, cannot be tolerated now that the government "has more flagrant human-rights violations in store, including new terrorism and NGO laws that will further clampdown on liberty and freedom of expression". And to this the "approach of local council elections, of particular importance to the regime since the coming parliament will be instrumental in deciding the next president, and the government is hypersensitive about any foreign criticism that might stir public debate", argues Mohamed Zarie of the Human Rights Organisation for the Assistance of Prisoners. "A total lid on human rights violations is what they want." Others see the whole squabble as a storm in a teacup, an attempt to distract the public from Cairo's diplomatic failures across the region. The message that such vociferous denunciations of foreign interference is intended to convey, says Magdi El-Gallad, editor-in- chief of the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, is "for local consumption: the public is being told that we [the government] have done our bit and stood up to foreign attacks." El-Gallad scoffs at the "muscle-flexing" on the part of Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and assembly speaker Fathi Sorour, who threatened to cut ties with the European Parliament. "How do they think they can act on such threats?" wrote El-Gallad. What will happen, he predicts, is what usually happens in such case: "retraction, denial or apology [on the part of Abul-Gheit] when the crisis gets blown out of all proportion." The resolution, which was passed by 52 out of 59 European lawmakers present at the European Assembly in Strasbourg, criticised Egypt over cases of systematic torture and abuses committed by police officers, the clampdown on freedom of expression as a result of the decades-long state of emergency, and for its treatment of religious minorities. It called on the Egyptian government "to end all forms of harassment, including judicial measures, detention of media professionals and, more generally, human rights defenders and activists". It also called for the immediate release of opposition politician Ayman Nour, jailed for five years in December 2005, and for a change in the law governing military courts which have been instrumental in the government persecution of political dissidents. The resolution also noted the closure of two NGOs -- the Centre for Trade Union and Workers' Services and its branches, and the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid, the first time advocacy NGOs have been closed by executive order. While Abul-Gheit was quick to slam the resolution, claiming it "reveals the [European] assembly's ignorance of the situation in Egypt" others might agree with Hassan, who insists it "is too true to be refuted".
