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Freedom and Justice Party Submits Egypt Human Rights Crisis Report to United Nations

In a press conference held today in Geneva, the FJP, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, urged the UN to take a more active role in reversing the tide of repression and lawlessness in Egypt under the illegitimate military coup regime

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The Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party held press conference at Le Club Suise de la Presse, Geneva on Wednesday 9th September 2015 to discuss their report which has been submitted to State Parties of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Egypt.

In anticipation of the 30th session of the UN Human Rights Council the Freedom & Justice Party (FJP) submitted a detailed report to the United Nations highlighting the continued human rights violations being perpetrated by the Egyptian regime and calling on the United Nations to carry out an urgent inquiry.

The FJP submission follows the findings of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Egypt in 2014 when the UPR Working Group issued its report adopting 300 recommendations made by state parties to the military regime. The recommendations were aimed at improving the regime’s compliance with fundamental human rights principles. As many of the state participants in the UPR made clear during the session, the situation in Egypt was one of unprecedented – and ongoing – repression.

Since those recommendations were made, the situation on the ground in Egypt has gone from bad to worse. Although the military regime purported to commit to the vast majority of recommendations made by state parties to the Human Rights Council, it has continued to flagrantly flout fundamental human rights and has even taken the shocking step of condemning the democratically elected former president of Egypt to death. The current situation can fairly be described as a crisis.

Despite the findings of the Working Group the Egyptian regime has continued to violate international law and its actions continue to fall far below international human rights standards. Widespread violations are documented in the report submitted to the UNHCR. The report details:

Wholescale breaches of the right to life, in particular through the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty following unfair trials and through the wrongful and repressive use of state force;

Endemic use of torture, including forced disappearances;

Widespread flouting of fair trial principles: in particular against perceived opponents of the regime;

Systematic undermining of freedom of expression, including unjustified action taken against protesters, non-governmental organisations and journalists;

Rampant breaches of freedom of association and assembly, in particular during elections and as regards opposition political movements;

Violent and discriminatory treatment of women and minorities, including the deliberate use of state-sponsored sexual violence.

These breaches have occurred notwithstanding the fact that the military regime in Egypt purported to accept the majority of the recommendations made by the Working Group on the Universal Period Review.

The Human Rights Councilshould not tolerate this blatant flouting of its recommendations. Rather, the Human Rights Council is invited to take the following, urgent, action to rectify the current crisis during the 30th Ordinary session of the Council:

Publicly recognise and condemn the widespread human rights breaches of the current military regime in Egypt;

Urgently call for an immediate suspension of any further state executions, an immediate release of political prisoners, and the holding of democratic elections. The Human Rights Council is also invited to urge all member States to take collective action to ensure these steps are implemented;

Establish a full, independent investigation into these violations by a fact- finding commission of inquiry;

Refer the situation to the UN Security Council and General Assembly for consideration of further action to include, if necessary, sanctions and steps to ensure accountability for the victims of these violations.