Egypt priority country for human rights concerns - U.K. report

Friday 22-04-2016 04:27 PM

Security forces arrest protesters in Ramsis square. REUTERS (Archive)

CAIRO, Apr. 22 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt is one of the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 30 Human Rights Priority Countries (HRPCs) listed in the latest 2015 annual human rights report.

The FCO employed the category, HRPCs, around which to focus their human rights advocacy projects, and to help “prioritise” their efforts, the report said.

Meanwhile, human rights advocates and critics argue that the FCO still downplayed Egypt’s human rights crisis.

The FCO said it found it “disappointing that Egypt and Somalia executed more people than in 2014.” The report lists human rights violations in Egypt, including torture, forced disappearances, and prolonged detention with trials.

The report added that the U.K. worked on these human rights issues over 2015 by “raising concerns at senior levels about human rights and our desire to see political reform,” “making public statements on issues of concern,” “funding projects promoting human rights and advocacy,” and “deploying a gender advisor to Cairo,” amongst other things.

The report also stated that Egypt “faced a significant terrorist threat.”

Local and international rights groups have been reporting increasing human rights violations, crackdowns and police abuses over the past few years. Meanwhile, Egypt has maintained that reports of violations are politicised and lack objectivity.

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