Monday, March 2, 2020
Press Release
Tomorrow, Tuesday, an Egyptian human rights delegation will head to Geneva to participate in the work of the 43rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which will witness the session to adopt recommendations directed to the third universal periodic review of the human rights situation in Egypt, which took place last November.
The human rights delegation consists of Saeed Abdel Hafez, head of the Forum of Development and Human Rights Dialogue (FDHRD), Rabha Fathy, head of the Egyptian Women Jurists Association, and Aida Nour El-Din, head of the Women and Development Association in Alexandria. The delegation includes experts in media, international relations and political Islam.
On March 9, FDHRD will organize with the Women and Development Association in Alexandria a seminar on human rights in Egypt on the sidelines of the meetings of the International Human Rights Council at the United Nations Palace in Geneva. FDHRD will hold a seminar on terrorism and its impact on human rights and development at the Swiss Press Club on March 10 at 6 pm Swiss time in the presence of a number of foreign journalists and media professionals.
The Egyptian human rights delegation will also meet with a number of special rapporteurs and a number of international organizations and official missions, led by the Special Rapporteur on counter terrorism, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other meetings aimed at discussing the human rights situation with decision-makers and accredited international organizations.
The Egyptian human rights delegation had participated in the session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the file of Egypt last November, where the current session of the Council is witnessing a session to adopt the recommendations during the second week of March, and it is reported that Egypt received 372 recommendations stemming from the five main rights of civil human rights; civil, political, economic, cultural and social. The recommendations made by the countries participating in the Egypt session focused on the importance of strengthening the human rights situation, paying attention to the right to organize and cooperate with international mechanisms, ratification of international treaties, giving more space to civil society organizations, creating a safe environment for the workers of these organizations, and promoting a culture of human rights.
The recommendations also focused on the rights of women, children, people with disabilities, economic and social rights, and focus on measures to combat unemployment, create job opportunities, combat illiteracy, and provide adequate housing. The recommendations demanded opening the way for freedom of opinion and expression, reviewing freedom-restricting legislation in opinion cases and abolishing the death penalty.
The recommendations also called on the Egyptian government to join the international treaties concerned with combating torture and ill-treatment, the right to a fair trial, establishing a mechanism to investigate any allegations of torture, paying attention to the right to education and health, combating corruption, human trafficking, discrimination and eliminating terrorism.
