Europe Mistakes with Addressing Human Rights in Egypt: Op-ed

Once again, the Egyptian state finds itself in a diplomatic confrontation with a European ally over the issue of human rights.

This brings us to the question of what Europe should do to appropriately support the efforts exerted by the Egyptian leadership to improve state performance on human rights, rather than playing the harmful game of media shaming, that European politicians have been doing for years.

Yesterday, in an official statement, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the comments of the German Federal Foreign Office on the trial of an Egyptian lawyer and two political activists, by an Egyptian court scheduled on the 20th of December. The German statement called upon the court to release the three defendants; which Egypt considered a severe interference in the work of the Egyptian judiciary. “The statement is unacceptable, flagrant, and unjustifiable interference in the Egyptian domestic affairs,” mentioned the statement of the Egyptian government.

In fact, the short German statement, which appears intended to support human rights in Egypt, is aggressively violating the basic human rights principle of respecting the rule of law. The judicial authority in Egypt is guaranteed full independence from the executive authority, by the power of the constitution. The highest authority in the country – the President of the State – cannot tell the judiciary what to do. In that sense, it is not acceptable that a spokesperson of a foreign government asks the Egyptian judiciary to give a specific verdict.

On the flip side, it seems that European politicians are not learning from their previous mistakes, in regards to addressing human rights concerns in Egypt. For a very long time, the European countries, inpidually and collectively, have been raising the issue of improving human rights conditions in Egypt. While their good intentions and sincere efforts are highly appreciated, the method used to achieve this goal have never led to any positive results.

Leveling pressures, or publishing shaming media statements, on an ally that is still stumbling on road to better human rights, is a wrong strategy. This method may be beneficial to the European politicians, as it helps them increase their voter base and citizen satisfaction. Human rights are integral to the history and cultural of the European people. But, in the target country, such methods never yield to good results.

That is particularly true for cases like Egypt, where the political leadership is already taking actual steps to improve the status of human rights. Ironically, the aforementioned German statement is concluded by congratulating the Egyptian state on its efforts to improve human rights conditions. “We welcome the most recent steps by the Egyptian Government to improve the human rights situation, including by introducing Egypt’s first national strategy for human rights in September 2021, and we will follow its implementation with great interest.”

Unlike all the previous regimes that ruled Egypt, the current leadership of president El-Sisi is not denying that Egypt is suffering from a chronic problem with human rights. Since he took office, in 2014, El-Sisi declared a war on corruption, and launched a number of successful infrastructure and social solidarity projects that enhanced economic and social rights, especially for the poor.

Above all that, El-Sisi, personally, has been vocal about supporting women’s rights, religious freedom, and empowering the youth. For the past four months, since the adoption of the National Strategy for Human Rights by the government, positive baby steps have been taken towards improving the political and civil rights, which suffered a lot, in the past years, while the state prioritized security and stability.

The insistence of some European politicians to ignore the sincerity of El-Sisi leadership in improving state performance on human rights is not fair. It is a very hard battle for Egypt that requires support from its sincere allies, who can provide best practice expertise that pushes the Egyptian wheels to the right direction. That is what Egypt needs from Europe when it comes to addressing human rights issues, not provocative media statements that had never served the cause, in the past, and will not serve it in the future.