US nudges Cairo again on human rights record

Washington: Egypt presented a rosy picture of its human rights credentials on Friday, promising to implement most of the recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council as part of a regular review process.

Egypt, which accepted 119 of the council's 165 recommendations in February, agreed to another 21 after US Vice-President Joe Biden publicly urged the nation to implement the recommendations on a visit here earlier this week.

They included those calling for better treatment of religious minorities, bringing its penal code into line with the UN Convention Against Torture, and the establishment of a fully independent electoral commission. Human rights organisations were not hopeful that Egypt would live up to the commitments it made to the council, and pointed out that the regime had already violated promises it made in February.

But Egypt's move comes after the US has showed a slight shift in policy by nudging Egypt on human rights and reform.

Soft chastisement

"Biden could have easily gone to Egypt and spoken only about Gaza and Iran. I think it's notable that he raised those issues in Egypt," said Michele Dunne, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"It's not a really high level of engagement, but at least these issues are starting to re-emerge in the US-Egypt relationship."

Dunne said she did not expect the US to exert serious pressure, such as using aid as leverage to exert pressure for reform. But Biden's soft public chastisement of Egypt could indicate that President Obama's administration was responding to widespread disappointment that it has largely ignored human rights and democracy promotion.

The Obama administration had been seen instead as favouring stability and progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

A consortium of Egyptian civil rights groups released a report this week detailing violations of the 119 United Nations Human Rights Commission recommendations Egypt had already agreed to.

They expressed frustration that the West — particularly the US which for years has sent more foreign aid to Egypt than any country except Israel — seemed loath to apply external pressure on Egypt to improve its human rights record.

- Christian Science Monitor