Egypt is facing a barrage of criticism over what the rights group says is a crackdown on protests and activists as it prepares to host the COP27 climate summit starting on Sunday.
Rights groups accused the Egyptian government of arbitrarily detaining activists after Egyptian dissidents abroad called for demonstrations against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on November 11 during United Nations climate talks.
According to rights groups, security forces have set up checkpoints on the streets of Cairo, stopping people and searching their phones for content related to the planned protests.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), an NGO, said on Wednesday that 93 people had been arrested in Egypt in recent days. It said that according to investigations by the national security prosecutor’s office, some of those arrested had allegedly sent videos calling for protests on social messaging apps. Some were also accused of abusing social media, spreading fake news and joining terrorist organizations – a repressive charge commonly used by the security apparatus against activists.
Indian climate activist Ajit Rajagopal was arrested in Cairo last Sunday after starting a protest walk from the Egyptian capital to Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where the COP27 conference will be held from November 6 to 18. Rajagopal was released after a brief detention in Cairo along with his friend, lawyer Makarios Lazy, a Facebook post by Lahzy said. Reuters, which spoke to Rajagopal after his release on Monday, reported that the Indian activist said he was still trying to get accreditation for COP27 but did not plan to follow through.
CNN has reached out to Egyptian authorities for comment.
Egypt went through two mass uprisings in 2011 and 2013, which eventually paved the way for then army chief Sisi to take power. Thousands of activists have since been jailed, spaces for public expression have been canceled and press freedom has been curtailed.
While protests are rare – and mostly illegal – in Egypt, a looming economic crisis and a brutal security regime have reignited calls for demonstrations by dissidents seeking to take advantage of a rare window of opportunity presented by the climate summit.
A jailed activist, British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abdelfattah, escalated his hunger strike in an Egyptian prison this week amid warnings from relatives about his deteriorating health. “Alaa has been on hunger strike for 200 days, surviving on only 100 calories of liquid a day,” said Sanaa Seif, Abdelfattah’s sister, who is holding a sit-in outside the UK Foreign Office in London.
The COP, the annual climate summit under the auspices of the United Nations that brings together the signatories of the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, is traditionally a place where representatives of civil society have the opportunity to interact with experts and policy makers and witness the negotiations first hand.
It’s not uncommon to see a young activist approaching a national delegation walking down the aisle to their next meeting, or an indigenous leader chatting with a minister on the sidelines of a debate.
And while security is always tight – this is, after all, a gathering attended by dozens of heads of state and government – peaceful protests have always been part of the COP. Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of last year’s host city of Glasgow, Scotland, during the summit.
However, Egypt has tightened rules on who can access the talks.
As in the past, this year’s COP conference will be held in two different venues. The official part of the summit is led by the UN and is accessible only to accredited persons, including official delegations, representatives of NGOs and other civil society groups, experts, journalists and other observers.
Then there is a separate public space where exhibitions and climate events take place during the two weeks of the summit. But while this public part of the summit has previously been open to anyone, those wishing to attend this year will need to register in advance.
The ability to protest will also be limited.
While the Egyptian government has pledged to allow demonstrations, it said protests would have to take place in a special “protest zone,” a designated area away from the main conference venue, and would have to be announced in advance. Guidelines published on the official COP website state that any other routes will need to be specifically approved.
Anyone who wants to organize a protest will have to register for the public part of the conference – a requirement that can scare activists who fear surveillance. Among the rules imposed by Egyptian authorities on the protests is a ban on the use of “personal items, such as satirical drawings of heads of state, negotiators, individuals”.
The UN urged Egypt to ensure that the public has a say at the conference.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said it was “essential that everyone – including representatives of civil society – should be able to participate meaningfully at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh” and that decisions on climate change must is “transparent, inclusive and accountable.”
Separately, a group of five independent human rights experts, all UN special rapporteurs, issued a statement last month expressing concern about restrictions ahead of the summit. They said the Egyptian government has placed strict restrictions on who can participate in the talks and how, and said “a wave of government restrictions on participation has fueled fears of reprisals against activists.”
“This new wave follows years of persistent and sustained crackdowns on civil society and human rights defenders who use security as a pretext to undermine civil society’s legitimate rights to participate in public affairs in Egypt,” the group said in a statement. statement.
A group of Egyptian civil rights groups has launched a petition calling on Egyptian authorities to end the persecution of activists and civil society organizations and to end restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
“Egyptian authorities have for years implemented draconian laws, including anti-terrorism, cybercrime and civil society laws, to stifle all forms of peaceful dissent and close down urban space,” the groups said in the report.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth and many other groups also spoke out, demanding the release of the imprisoned activists.
Ahead of the climate conference, the Egyptian government presented an initiative to pardon prisoners imprisoned for their political activity. Authorities also pointed to a new prison, Badr-3, 70 kilometers (43 miles) northeast of Cairo, where other inmates were moved to supposedly better conditions.
But rights groups said the government’s initiatives were little change.
“Ahead of COP27, Egypt’s public relations machine is running on all cylinders to hide the horrific reality in the country’s prisons, where political prisoners languish in appalling conditions in violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment,” he said. Agnès Callamard. , Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“Detainees face the same human rights abuses that have repeatedly plagued older institutions, exposing the lack of political will on the part of the Egyptian authorities to put an end to the country’s human rights crisis.”
