Human Lives Human Rights: As European Union (EU) leaders convene with the Egyptian president in Cairo on March 17, 2024, human rights organizations emphasize the critical need for human rights to be the cornerstone of all interactions between the EU and Egypt.
In their efforts to bolster relations with Egypt, EU leaders must remain vigilant against becoming complicit in the nation’s ongoing severe human rights infringements.
Journalists and activists persistently encounter arrests, censorship, travel restrictions, asset freezes, and various forms of harassment amidst a relentless crackdown on dissent.
Thousands are unjustly incarcerated in dire conditions solely for exercising their human rights or following unjust trials. Hundreds face death sentences annually, while enforced disappearances, torture, and other forms of maltreatment persist, often perpetrated with impunity.
To effectively address Egypt’s human rights crisis through cooperation, EU leaders must ensure Egyptian authorities adopt clear human rights benchmarks, including lifting media censorship and other constraints on freedom of expression, reversing the assault on civil society, and releasing all arbitrarily detained individuals who peacefully exercise their rights.
Within the framework of the Strategic Partnership, the EU and Egypt are poised to negotiate EU investment in border management, including equipping Egyptian authorities and supporting border control efforts to curb departures.
Egypt routinely detains refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants arbitrarily, subjecting them to inhumane treatment and unlawful deportation without due process or the opportunity to seek asylum, putting them at risk of grave human rights violations in other countries.
EU leaders must not turn a blind eye to these abuses and must ensure that any cooperation agreements include robust human rights protections. The EU should abandon ineffective approaches that expose individuals to rights abuses, as seen in its cooperation with Libya or Tunisia.
This meeting occurs against the backdrop of EU member states’ differing responses to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the risk of genocide against Palestinians, with over 31,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip. While Belgium has increased support for UNRWA and advocated for a ceasefire, the European Commission, Italy, and Austria risk exacerbating the suffering of Gaza’s population through inadequate funding for UNRWA, arms exports to Israel, or failure to call for an immediate ceasefire.
The Belgian Prime Minister and the Egyptian President must urge their counterparts to publicly endorse an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, fully restore funding to UNRWA, and review Israel’s compliance with its human rights obligations.
Background
On March 17, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will visit Egypt to advance negotiations with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the EU-Egypt Strategic Partnership. This partnership reportedly entails €7.4 billion in grants and loans until the end of 2027.
