15 November 2022 - Participants in the meeting welcomed the opportunity, made possible by the government’s partial easing of restrictions on travel into Egypt for international civil society organisations during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), to resume in person consultations between partners that should be a routine part of our work.
The participants believe that opening civic space and enabling engagement between human rights experts are prerequisites for Egypt to be able to meet the many challenges currently facing the country in the civil, political, economic, social and environmental rights spheres. This is being demonstrated now at COP27, where the slogan “No Climate Justice without Human Rights” has gained currency. We encourage all national, regional and international actors to support the basic rights and freedoms of people in Egypt.
The participants look forward to future constructive engagement with the Egyptian government. We hope that Egypt will soon emerge from the human rights crisis that has undermined essential human interaction and creative collaboration to the detriment of the Egyptian human rights NGOs and the international community.
Since the continuing crackdown on human rights organisations intensified after 2013, the Egyptian government has sometimes blocked travel to Egypt for international human rights organisations. During the COP27 conference, a representative of the Danish Institute against Torture was barred from entering Egypt at Cairo International Airport, preventing the organisation from participating at the roundtable. Moreover, several leading Egyptian NGO directors and staff remain arbitrarily banned from travel abroad, some stemming from the notorious Case 173 of 2011 (foreign funding case), which continues to impair the free functioning of independent civil society.