CAIRO: Secretary General of Amnesty International (AI), Irene Khan, is meeting with the Head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, in Cairo today to discuss the human rights situation in the Middle East and North Africa region, According to the reputable London-based rights group, the talks will focus on human rights conditions in Lebanon, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Somalia, and Sudan. Khan will reportedly make a brief statement at the end of the meeting. Today's discussions mark the second time that Amnesty officials have visited Egypt this year. In early April, AI representatives held a press conference in Cairo highlighting the organization's release of the report "Systematic Abuses in the Name of Security. The report focuses on the impact of the Egyptian government s counter-terrorism measures on human rights conditions in the country. The report, claiming that Egypt's 26-year-long Emergency Law and recently introduced constitutional amendments severely weaken the state of human rights in Egypt, was strongly rejected by Egyptian officials shortly after its presentation. The Egyptian government is offended by the latest report which included inaccurate and biased information about the state of human rights in Egypt, a spokesman from the Foreign Ministry reportedly stated. The Foreign Ministry offered in response that Egypt has indeed enjoyed real and continuous achievements in the field of human rights, referring to the establishment of the National Council of Human Rights, a government-run agency chaired by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali. Local human rights groups have posed strong criticism at the Council arguing, that the body "fails to challenge the state.
