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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 accredited the EU-Egypt bid to co-chair the World Counterterrorism Discussion board (GCTF), regardless of broadly documented proof of human rights abuses and the usage of counter-terrorism powers within the nation since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seized energy in 2013.
The bid was proposed by France, which at the moment heads the EU Council’s rotating presidency, on 11 January, sooner or later after the Cairo-based Arabic Community for Human Rights Info (ANHRI) mentioned it had been forced to close due to authorities persecution.
The ANHRI, one of many final impartial 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, informed 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 at 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 underneath the guise of the battle on terrorism,” Mefreh mentioned.
In accordance with 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 celebration on terrorism in October and November.
‘Lengthy-time accomplice’
“As co-chair of the GCTF, the EU may also help form the agenda of worldwide counter-terrorism coverage and follow 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 accomplice of the EU and co-chair of the GCTF working group on capability constructing in East Africa”.
Duties of the co-chairs would come with “offering general strategic course and administration of Discussion board actions,” it mentioned.
The memo is marked ‘limite”, that means the doc is taken into account delicate and never for publication.
The bid was accredited 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 function are on account of register their curiosity by the tip of this week.
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 function in shaping the course and improvement of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism methods all over the world over the previous decade.
Its 30 members additionally embody Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Algeria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and plenty of particular person European states.
It really works intently with the UN to advertise the worldwide physique’s personal counter-terrorism technique.
Egypt and the EU at the moment co-chair a GCTF working group on capacity-building in East Africa whose work has included “encouraging the implementation of excellent practices for efficient counterterrorism follow within the prison justice sector”.
Egypt was additionally beforehand a co-chair with the US of a working group on prison 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 additionally 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 underneath Sisi has been broadly criticised.
It’s listed within the newest US State Department terrorism report amongst nations the place “vital human rights points influenced the state of terrorist exercise within the nation and should have impeded efficient counterterrorism insurance policies”.
In September, Human Rights Watch said Sisi’s authorities used the pretext of combating terrorism to present 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 told MEE that their state of affairs had worsened for the reason that 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 overview” 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 celebration.
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 thought for human rights violations. Collaboration with the coup chief and oligarch Sisi is a betrayal of all these preventing for social rights and democracy in Egypt,” Demirel informed 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 either side of the Mediterranean. Combatting this risk with due respect to human rights and worldwide regulation is a joint dedication enshrined within the EU – Egypt Partnership Priorities.”
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