ANSD : Rights groups call for UN action on Egypt 'reprisals'

THU 25 - 4 - 2024

Date: Dec 13, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Rights groups call for UN action on Egypt 'reprisals'

_{Agence France Presse}
GENEVA: Rights groups Wednesday called for a "robust" response to a U.N. expert's allegations that people she met during a visit to Egypt faced harassment, intimidation and other reprisals afterward.

A statement signed by six organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International urged an "independent U.N. investigation" into the accusations.

Last week the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Leilani Farha, said she was "shocked" at the treatment of communities she met during her official visit from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3.

According to Farha, several families from two communities she met were later subjected to "forced evictions" and had their furniture thrown in the streets, leaving them homeless.

Other people she had contact with were summoned by the police for interrogation, and one faced "arbitrary arrest and undisclosed detention," the U.N. said.

"Egypt has failed to adhere to the assurances provided to me that no person would be harassed, intimidated or subjected to reprisal for meeting or providing information to me or my delegation," Farha said.

Her statement triggered an angry response from Egypt, which accused her of "fabricating lies."

The rights groups warned that failing to act in response to the alleged reprisals "will only encourage similar human rights violations in the future and risk undermining the accessibility and credibility of the U.N. experts and wider human rights system."

They called on the U.N. to "ensure an urgent and robust system-wide response" and said its Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights should review "any ongoing cooperation" with the Egyptian government.

The Egyptian authorities have clamped down on dissent, particularly among supporters of former Islamist President Mohammad Morsi, who was toppled by the military in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

The crackdown was later expanded to include liberal and leftist secular activists.

According to the U.N., Farha's visit was the first to Egypt by an expert appointed by its Human Rights Council since 2011.

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