A US delegation has visited Egypt headed by senator James Risch, the current chairperson of the subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and counter terrorism at the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, according Daily News Egypt.
US Republican senators have praised Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi for his “commitment” to economic development in Egypt and counter-terrorism efforts, recognizing Egypt as having a “pivotal role” in stabilizing the region,as reported by Middle East Monitor.
In his Senator James Risch in Sharm El-Sheikh, Al-Sisi said Egypt’s human rights record should not be viewed from a “Western perspective” or standards.
US administrations continues to undermine human rights violations for security matters.
Al-Sisi’s human rights record was full of violation and abuses since he took presidency in June 2014 after he launched a military coup in 2013 against Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi.
Al-Sisi has been widely condemned for Egypt’s human rights abuses, the arrest of thousands of political opposition figures, restrictions to freedom of speech and mass torture and killings by police forces.
In this context, United Nations human rights expert has criticized the Egyptian authorities’ crackdown on civil society on Tuesday , saying it is placing growing restrictions on non-government organizations and is harassing rights defenders, said the Associated Press.
Maina Kiai,the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, called on Egypt to meet its international legal obligations after the country introduced a restrictive new NGO law and froze the assets of prominent human rights activists.
He says “the government seems to be systematically attacking civil society in an effort to silence its voice.”
Last month, Egyptian court upheld a decision to freeze the assets of five prominent human rights defenders and three NGOs. It was the latest blow to a once-vibrant activist community that has been largely silenced by the government crackdown.
At an earlier time, Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director Joe Stork said,“What makes it worse is that Western governments that subordinated human rights in their relations with Egypt during the Mubarak era seem ready to repeat their mistake.”
Regarding economic issues,the US senators praise to al-Sisi’s commitment to economic development contradicts reality as Egypt’s economy is facing one of its harshest economic crisis and it is ahead seeking several financial loans from different international organizations as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
In this context, Al-Sisi’s legacy concerning economic and social rights is at stake too, especially given the wave of fluctuating economic policies that have been debated by the public.
Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced that the percentage of the population under the poverty line jumped from 26.3% in 2012/2013 to 27.8% in 2014/2015.
