Human Rights Controversies Surrounding Egypt’s Hosting of COP27
Egypt is hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre this month. The conference represents a unique chance for all stakeholders to highlight solutions to the global challenge of climate change. On the agenda are discussions of innovations, unlocking private sector finance for climate adaptation, youth leadership programs and more. However, the influential conference has also served to shine a spotlight on the host country’s human rights misdealings. In particular, the situation of British-Egyptian prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah has drawn the attention of several media organisations and high-level British leadership.
Alaa was a key figure during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Egypt and is one of the most renowned political prisoners in the Middle East. He spent more than nine years in and out of the Egyptian prison system on trumped-up charges because of his political protests. His latest term began in September 2019 following a wave of demonstrations where authorities accused him of “spreading false information.” As a result, Abd el-Fattah, currently residing in Wadi al-Natrun prison, has committed to a hunger strike. Since April, he has been partially hunger-striking by only eating 100 calories a day and taking only water and salts to protest his detention conditions. However, he informed his family in early September that he could die soon and would escalate his strike to cease drinking water as the COP27 conference began. There is mounting pressure on the British government to act and support him as complete inaction would likely lead to Alaa’s death under the spotlight of the climate conference.
There has been a lot of effort from various activists to support Alaa and raise awareness of the human rights concerns in the country. Days before the conference, authorities detained an Indian climate activist walking through Cairo with a sign reading “March for our planet.” Moreover, hundreds were detained across Egypt over demands on social media for citizens to protest Egypt's economic crisis. Most Nobel prize for literature laureates published an open letter calling for heads of state, climate ministers, envoy heads, and negotiators to help free the political prisoners in Egypt. Alaa’s sister, Sanaa, began staging a sit-in two weeks ago outside the Foreign Office. Sanaa did this to garner Foreign Minister Cleverly's attention and pressure him to make a public statement demanding her brother’s release. Sanaa has also said she will fly to COP27 to raise humanitarian concerns at the conference. Sanaa’s efforts were greeted by a wave of support from a coalition of 64 members of parliament who signed a letter demanding the foreign secretary take immediate action regarding Abd El-Fattah’s case. On Sunday, Amnesty International joined Alaa’s family in organising a candlelit vigil with over 200 candles marking the number of days of Alaa’s hunger strike and banners which called for his release. Sacha Deshmukh, the Chief Executive of the UK branch of Amnesty International, also wrote to Downing Street asking Rishi Sunak to help. Fortunately, Rishi has acknowledged these concerns and assured the family that he would raise Alaa’s issue at COP27. However, the Egyptian government has continued to insist that there are no political prisoners in the country.