At the important 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt must not be allowed to whitewash the precarious situation of democracy, human rights, and civil society in Egypt urges LI’s Human Rights Committee.
We recognize that despite many international petitions and statements, the conference risks being a missed opportunity for the international community to meet with Egyptian civil society in an unrestricted manner. There are credible reports that the selection of Egyptian participating organisations at Sharm El Sheikh has not been objective and critical voices have not been allowed.
Climate change cannot be successfully combatted, and climate justice cannot be obtained without the support of a strong and diverse civil society backing. Reports are stating that the authorities arrested dozens of people who were calling for anti-government protests on the 11th of November – something which LI HRC denounces with all force.
We also call on participants to continue to ask for the liberation of arbitrarily detained civil society activists, human rights defenders, and journalists. The international community must ask for the liberation of human rights defenders and activists Ahmed Badawi, Mohamed Al-Baqer and Alaa Abdel Fattah who have all been detained since 2019. British Egyptian citizen Alaa Fattah’s life is seriously in danger as he recently escalated his hunger strike and stopped drinking water in an attempt to be UK granted consular access.
We also urge all those countries who have as a policy to protect human rights defenders to do their outmost to help defenders in distress in Egypt.
