CAIRO: Egypt landed a high-profile seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council last week after dueling media campaigns that pitted the regime's promises to defend human rights against the vocal skepticism of local and international rights advocates. Now that Cairo has secured its seat, activists say, the government should uphold those promises and bring an end to what they call widespread rights abuses in Egypt. Prior to its election, in which it faced no competition, the state pledged to use the UN system to robustly defend rights around the world. If elected, it promised "to make the Human Rights Council a strong, effective and efficient body, capable of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms for all. But human rights groups were not convinced. Calling Egypt's record both "terrible and "appalling, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) have said that the country was "a poor choice for membership of the Council. But its promises do provide the state with a chance to mend its ways, the two said in a joint statement issued this week. They want the regime to put its money where its mouth is. Egypt has for too long committed serious and systematic abuses at home while consistently undermining UN mechanisms to defend rights, said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch s Middle East division. Now Cairo needs to show that it really intends to turn a new page on human rights and uphold international standards. Activists argue that rather than provide strong support for UN bodies like the Council, the Egyptian government usually ignores them. Of seven UN bodies to which Egypt is a member, they say, it is currently late in submitting ten mandatory reports to six bodies. In the case of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, Cairo's report is more than a decade overdue. More troubling, rights groups say, is the government's refusal to allow any of the UN special rapporteurs for the Council to visit Egypt. Several of the rapporteurs have had their entrance blocked or indefinitely delayed, including those assigned to investigate torture, counter-terrorism, judicial independence, and freedom of religion. Over the past year, stories of abuses related to each of these issues have made headlines across the country and garnered criticism from human rights organizations around the world. According to Hossam Bahgat, director of the EIPR, if Egypt is going to take its position on the council seriously, this must change. Over the past year, Egypt consistently worked with other abusive governments to limit effectiveness and credibility of the Council, he said. Egypt should now support measures to strengthen the Council s system of independent experts rather than abet those who are trying to dismantle it. Before the 2005 elections, in which opposition candidates were given unprecedented leeway, there was a brief period in which many analysts said the Egyptian political system appeared to be opening up. But since then the regime has been engaged in a crackdown against opposition groups and dissenters of all stripes, from Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians to secular union activists and college-age bloggers. In the last year, more than 1,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been jailed, including Deputy Chief Khairat El Shater and TV journalist and blogger Abdel Moneim Mahmoud. Many Brotherhood detainees have been held for months without charge in poor conditions. Several, including El Shater, have been acquitted by civilian courts only to be re-arrested on the spot and scheduled for re-trial before military tribunals. Allegations of torture and sexual assault in prisons and police stations are widespread. Secular opponents have felt the pressure too. In April, the government shut down the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, an independent labor rights watchdog group based in Helwan. The group was accused of endangering the stability of the country by encouraging Egyptian workers to organize unions independent of state control. And in 2006, Ayman Nour, founder of the liberal El Ghad party and failed presidential challenger to President Hosni Mubarak, was sent to jail on fraud charges. Each of these cases has been "politically motivated, say HRW and the EIPR. If Egypt is serious about cleaning up its human rights performance, it should start by allowing the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services to reopen, and by freeing Ayman Nour and Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, said Stork. The Human Rights Council was created last year to replace a separate body called the Human Rights Commission, which critics said was overly politicized and discredited by the participation of rights-abusing regimes. Council members are drawn from regional groupings and elected to three-year terms. Egypt will serve as a representative of the African subgroup, which only nominated four countries to fill its four allocated seats, precluding any competition among nominees. In addition to Egypt, South Africa, Madagascar and Angola were also elected as the Council's African representatives.
