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EU plans joint bid with Egypt to steer world counter-terrorism physique
Simon Hooper
Fri, 01/21/2022 – 10:05
The European Union is planning a joint bid with Egypt for the management of an influential worldwide organisation shaping world counter-terrorism insurance policies.
Officers in Brussels final week authorized the EU-Egypt bid to co-chair the World Counterterrorism Discussion board (GCTF), regardless of extensively documented proof of human rights abuses and using counter-terrorism powers within the nation since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seized energy in 2013.
The bid was proposed by France, which presently heads the EU Council’s rotating presidency, on 11 January, at some point after the Cairo-based Arabic Community for Human Rights Data (ANHRI) mentioned it had been compelled to shut due to authorities persecution.
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The ANHRI, one of many final unbiased human rights teams working in Egypt, mentioned it was suspending its actions due to an “an absence of the naked minimal of the rule of regulation and respect for human rights”.
It mentioned its staff had been arrested, intimidated and bodily assaulted by safety forces.
Ahmed Mefreh, an Egyptian human rights lawyer and director of the Geneva-based Committee for Justice, advised MEE the proposed bid gave the impression to be an try by the EU “to assist the Sisi regime in beautifying its picture”.
He mentioned it indicated a willingness on the a part of some EU establishments to show a blind eye to human rights violations regardless of issues raised on the United Nations about Egypt’s abuse of counter-terrorism legal guidelines.
“Nominating Egypt as a chair of any worldwide counter-terrorism discussion board is a mockery of the human rights violations in Egypt dedicated below the guise of the struggle on terrorism,” Mefreh mentioned.
In response to an EU Council memo dated 11 January and printed by Statewatch, the proposed joint bid was first raised by members of the EU’s diplomatic service, the European Exterior Motion Service (EEAS), at conferences of an EU working get together on terrorism in October and November.
‘Lengthy-time associate’
“As co-chair of the GCTF, the EU might help form the agenda of worldwide counter-terrorism coverage and observe and promote EU values within the subject of counter-terrorism,” the memo mentioned.
It mentioned Egypt had expressed curiosity in a joint bid and was “a long-time associate of the EU and co-chair of the GCTF working group on capability constructing in East Africa”.
Tasks of the co-chairs would come with “offering general strategic path and administration of Discussion board actions,” it mentioned.
The memo is marked ‘limite”, which means the doc is taken into account delicate and never for publication.
The bid was authorized on 12 January by an EU Council committee of everlasting representatives from the EU’s 27 member states.
Peter Stano, an EU spokesperson, on Friday confirmed to MEE that the EU and Egypt had offered a joint bid to co-chair the GCTF. Potential candidates for the position are on account of register their curiosity by the tip of this week.
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GCTF members will select the following co-chairs at a gathering in March with the chosen candidates starting their time period in September. The present co-chairs are Canada and Morocco.
The GCTF was established in New York in September 2011 and initially co-chaired by the US and Turkey. It has performed an influential position in shaping the path and improvement of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism methods world wide over the previous decade.
Its 30 members additionally embrace Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Algeria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and plenty of particular person European states.
It really works carefully with the UN to advertise the worldwide physique’s personal counter-terrorism technique.
Gavin Sullivan, a reader in worldwide human rights regulation at Edinburgh Regulation Faculty and a authorized professional on world counterterrorism points, advised MEE that the GCTF had performed an more and more essential position in shaping worldwide counter-terrorism regulation with little accountability or debate.
“Permitting Egypt to tackle a management position of the GCTF is a particularly dangerous and harmful political transfer. It might enable a state with a confirmed historical past of abusing counter-terrorism regulation domestically to form counter-terrorism regulation globally,” mentioned Sullivan.
“It suggests the EU is putting safety co-operation with an authoritarian regime of geopolitical curiosity within the world struggle on terror as extra essential than adherence to worldwide human rights norms and the rule of regulation – that are each core constitutional values of the EU.”
Egypt and the EU presently co-chair a GCTF working group on capacity-building in East Africa whose work has included “encouraging the implementation of fine practices for efficient counterterrorism observe within the legal justice sector”.
Egypt was additionally beforehand a co-chair with the US of a working group on legal justice and the rule of regulation.
Addressing a GCTF assembly in October, Mohamed Fouad Ahmed, director of Egypt’s counter-terrorism unit, mentioned: “Egypt firmly believes that for our counter-terrorism efforts to achieve success we should pursue a holistic strategy addressing root causes of terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism.
“That’s not restricted to safety measures but in addition spans enhancing socio-economic improvement and refuting terrorist teams’ deviant ideologies.”
‘Free rein to suppress opposition’
However the Egyptian authorities’s personal use of counter-terrorism legal guidelines to quash dissent below Sisi has been extensively criticised.
It’s listed within the newest US State Division terrorism report amongst international locations the place “vital human rights points influenced the state of terrorist exercise within the nation and will have impeded efficient counterterrorism insurance policies”.
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In September, Human Rights Watch mentioned Sisi’s authorities used the pretext of combating terrorism to offer safety forces “free rein to suppress all opposition, together with peaceable dissent, with near-absolute impunity for grave abuse”.
Egyptian dissidents residing in Europe have additionally complained of being threatened and spied on by Egypt’s intelligence company.
Dissidents residing in Germany final month advised MEE that their scenario had worsened because the German authorities signed a safety pact with Egypt in 2017.
In December 2020, the European Parliament handed a decision calling for a “profound and complete evaluation” of the EU’s relations with Egypt, and deploring the Egyptian authorities’ use of counter-terrorism laws towards human rights activists and Sisi’s political opponents.
The EU’s bid with Egypt to steer the GCTF was condemned by Ozlem Demirel, a member of the European Parliament for Germany’s Left get together.
Demirel cited the latest case of Egyptian activist Hossam Menoufi Mahmoud Sallam who was arrested after the airplane he was travelling aboard from Sudan to Istanbul was compelled to make an emergency touchdown in Luxor.
“The Sisi regime is understood for human rights violations. Collaboration with the coup chief and oligarch Sisi is a betrayal of all these combating for social rights and democracy in Egypt,” Demirel advised MEE.
Stano, the EU spokesperson, mentioned: “The EU locations nice significance in taking multilateral motion to counter terrorism. This initiative builds on the EU’s earlier cooperation with Egypt within the GCTF as co-chairs of the East Africa Capability Constructing Working Group over the past 4 years.
“Terrorism is a standard problem on each side of the Mediterranean. Combatting this menace with due respect to human rights and worldwide regulation is a joint dedication enshrined within the EU – Egypt Partnership Priorities.”
This text is accessible in French on Center East Eye French version.
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