The United States and other countries today slammed the human rights situation in Egypt at a United Nations meeting reviewing the country's record for the first time since the 2011 ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The blistering criticism came as human rights groups said that conditions in Egypt have worsened in recent years, rather than improved, and warned that their work to highlight abuses is becoming increasingly difficult.
"We are deeply concerned with steps taken by Egypt that have resulted in violations of freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, deprived thousands of Egyptians of fair trial guarantees, and undermined civil society's role in the country," US Ambassador Keith Harper told the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
Harper called for the release of political prisoners and urged Egypt to "investigate excessive use of force by security forces, publicly release findings, and prosecute those identified as being responsible."
Hundreds of protesters were killed during clashes with security forces under the transitional military leadership after the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak, as well as since the first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, took office in 2012. The violence against protesters only intensified when the military overthrew Morsi following mass protests against him last year, with security violently breaking up protests by Islamists denouncing his removal. Hundreds were killed over a few days in the summer of 2013.
Washington's criticism echoed that of many other countries, including Britain, Sweden, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, the Netherlands and Norway, who particularly faulted Egypt's crackdown on rights groups and journalists. They also criticised the harsh sentences including hundreds of death sentences meted out against government critics, who are routinely branded as traitors and spies.
Egypt's minister for transitional justice, Ibrahim el-Heneidy, bullishly defended his country's record, saying its new constitution was "a true victory for human rights and freedoms" and insisting that the government was committed to upholding the international treaties it had signed.
Hesham Badr, deputy foreign minister of Egypt, told the session that some of the comments by delegations were based on "misconceptions," lauding his government's efforts at legal and constitutional reforms and commitment to international obligations.
