EGYPT: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES UPDATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 007109 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS NSC STAFF FOR WATERS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KDEM KIRF EG SUBJECT: EGYPT: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES UPDATE REF: A. CAIRO 6953 ¶B. CAIRO 6171 ¶C. CAIRO 5709 Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) International Human Rights Day passed with little notice in Egypt, but human rights continue to generate public debate and controversy. Government progress on some human rights issues has been notable, but civil society critics of the GOE--bolstered by an increasingly assertive media--charge that the key GOE power brokers, particularly the Ministry of Interior, remain uncommitted to implementing a comprehensive program to protect and expand human rights. This message highlights GOE progress on human rights as well as a number of current human rights issues that are generating public debate and discussion. End summary. -------------- Notable Progress: NCHR -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The GOE's most significant human rights achievement in recent years has been the creation of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR),formally established in 2003 and made operational in 2004. NCHR issued annual reports on the state of human rights in Egypt in 2005 and again in 2006. In addition, NCHR has issued a variety of studies keyed to particular issues, including the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections. Most recently, NCHR has conducted public seminars on a number of controversial current issues including civil rights for Baha'is, the GOE's regulation of NGOs, and constitutional amendments. ¶3. (SBU) NCHR reports have tended to occupy a middle ground between the sometimes strident reporting of the professional human rights community and the reflexive apologetics that often characterize GOE reaction to charges of human rights abuses. Although many human rights activists have characterized NCHR reporting as "watered down" and calculated to minimize offense to the GOE, other observers suggest that GOE discomfort with some of the more critical NCHR reporting will lead to a major turn-over on the NCHR board in early 2007, when the three-year term of the board's original members expires. The press has speculated that NCHR president Boutros Boutros-Ghali (the former UNSYG, who now spends most of his time in Paris) and NCHR Vice President Kamal Aboul Magd will be replaced by personages less likely to criticize the GOE, such as long-time presidential advisor Osama El-Baz. -------------- -------------- GOE's Human Rights Training for Police, Prosecutors -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Working with the UNDP, and supported by the EU and the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA),the GOE has continued to provide human rights training for thousands of judicial and law enforcement officials. The current phase of the project, running 2006-2009, aims to train 1200 judges, 700 prosecutors, 3000 police officers, 1800 media figures, and 750 lawyers "to familiarize Egyptians ... with international standards of human rights ... as well as Egypt's treaty commitments." ¶5. (SBU) Speaking to reporters ahead of International Human Rights Day, Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit said, "Egypt firmly believes in the importance of protecting human rights and civil liberties worldwide." He placed particular emphasis on Egypt's support for human rights in international fora, including the new U.N. Human Rights Council, and within the African Union, including the Egypt's role in drafting the African Human Rights Charter. According to Aboul Gheit, Egypt's National Councils (for Human Rights, Women, and Motherhood and Childhood) have played a significant role in strengthening human rights in Egypt. Finally, he warned against the application of "selectivity and double standards" in human rights matters. -------------- -------------- Concerns About Bloggers, Baha'is, and Police Brutality -------------- -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Notwithstanding these positive developments, CAIRO 00007109 002 OF 003 recent months have witnessed several human rights problems that have led critics to question the GOE's commitment to addressing outstanding human rights problems. For example, Alexandria blogger Abdel Karim Amer, whose blog entries have contained critiques of Islam and Al-Azhar Sunni Muslim orthodoxy, has been detained without formal charges under a series of renewed detention orders since late October. Although some observers note that his blog entries may open him to prosecution under the GOE's blasphemy laws, human rights activists have condemned the GOE's apparent reluctance to file formal charges against him. In early November, the media freedom group, Reporters without Borders (RSF),charged that Egypt was violating internet freedom by its actions against bloggers such as Amer. ¶7. (SBU) The Ministry of Interior's appeal of an administrative court ruling in April, which had affirmed civil rights for Egypt's small community of Baha'is, has set the stage for a decision by the Supreme Administrative Court on December 16 (Ref A). At issue is whether Egypt's Baha'is, who were formally disestablished by Nasser in 1960, have the right to obtain GOE identity documents. GOE administrative practice, which appears to conflict with constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, requires identity card applicants to self-identify as Jew, Christian, or Muslim. Most Baha'is, who are considered apostates by mainstream Islam, have been unwilling to lie about their religion. As a result, they face great difficulties in conducting civil transactions, including registering births, marriages and deaths, obtaining passports, enrolling children in school, and obtaining bank accounts and driver's licenses. ¶8. (SBU) In recent months, a spate of video clips of apparent police brutality against detainees has led to debate in the blogosphere and in the independent press. Of the half dozen videos in circulation, most document non-lethal brutality apparently aimed at humiliating or scaring detainees, but ONE clip, which has sparked the most comment, purportedly documents a violent sexual assault by police on a male detainee. Journalist Wael Abdel Fattah of the independent weekly Al-Fagr recently published an article which identified the rape victim, Emad Ali Mohamed Kabir, as a taxi driver from Giza who said that the rape occurred in January 2006, and that he had declined to press charges due to fear of police retaliation. According to recent press coverage of the "torture video" phenomenon, the Ministry of Interior is conducting an internal investigation process to identify the officers portrayed in the videos. In response to a request by the respected Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, the Public Prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the videos. ¶9. (SBU) In another case involving attacks by ruling party supporters against opposition demonstrators during the May 2005 referendum, the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights (EIPR),supported by about a dozen other human rights NGOs, secured a ruling in late November from the African Commission for Human and People's Rights (ACHPR),an African Union entity based in the Gambia, to hear a case against the GOE. (The GOE's own investigation into the referendum assaults was closed after the GOE said that it was not possible to identity the perpetrators, many of whom were documented on video as they beat and sexually assaulted opposition demonstrators and journalists.) The ACHPR inquiry against the GOE will commence in May 2007 and could ultimately lead to a formal ACHPR rebuke of the GOE. -------------- Ayman Nour's HEALTH -------------- ¶10. (SBU) The ongoing incarceration of Ayman Nour (Ref B), the ailing head of the Ghad Party, who was convicted in a controversial trial of forging his party's registration documents, continues to stir debate. Nour, who is diabetic and has heart trouble, has been jailed since his December 2005 conviction, shortly after he finished a distant second to President Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election and then lost his parliamentary seat. Recently, Nour's family and supporters have reported that his heart condition is worsening and have urged the GOE to release him under a health-based parole. Even popular television host Amr Adib, who is known for his close contacts with the government, has called for the GOE to provide prompt and complete treatment for Nour, saying, "I do not want my country to look like a country in which there was a presidential candidate who died inside prison." CAIRO 00007109 003 OF 003 -------------- -------------- Death Sentences, Without Appeal, for Convicted Terrorists -------------- -------------- ¶11. (SBU) The September conviction of the 2004 Taba terror bombing suspects in a State Security Court trial in Ismailia, followed by the passing of death sentences against the three main suspects in early December, has focused attention on the fact that convicts and their lawyers allege that they were tortured in detention and complain that they have no right to appeal the death sentences. Only President Mubarak has the right to commute death sentences imposed by the State Security Court system. -------------- Detained Christian Convert -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Muslim-born convert to Christianity Bahaa Al-Accad has been imprisoned without charge since April 2005. Al-Accad's family and lawyers, who believe that his conversion to Christianity is the reason for his detention, report that his HEALTH is failing. International Christian advocacy groups are planning to adopt Al-Accad as prisoner of conscience. Emboffs have raised Al-Accad's case on several occasions with the GOE, but he remains in detention. -------------- Muslim Brotherhood Detentions -------------- ¶13. (SBU) As documented by Human Rights Watch and other independent advocacy groups, and reported Ref C, 2006 has witnessed detentions without charge or trial of hundreds of opposition activists associated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood (MB),including senior MB leaders Essam El-Erian and Mohamed Morsi, who were detained May-early December as a result of their involvement in demonstrations in support of judicial independence. The precise number of MB activists currently still in detention is unknown. With the exception of El-Erian and Morsi, the GOE has typically detained MB members for relatively brief periods ranging from several weeks to several months. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶14. (SBU) Although the GOE clearly appreciates the need for high-level engagement on human rights issues, its critics charge that much of this engagement is cosmetic. Police and security officials often appear to act with impunity. The independent press and the alternative media, especially blogs, have played a key role in highlighting recent human rights abuses, but it is not yet clear if these watchdog efforts will lead to more robust GOE support of human rights. RICCIARDONE