Changes from resolution motion to resolution motion joint

RemovedB90427/2020

AddedEuropean Parliament resolution on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, in particular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

RemovedEuropean Parliament resolution on The deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, in particular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)

(2020/2912(RSP))

The European Parliament,

Changed– having regard to its previous resolutions on Egypt, in particular thosethat of 24 October 2019, 13 December 2018, 10 March 2016 and 8 February 2015,

Change 1

Removedhaving regard to European Parliament resolution of 17 September 2020 on Arms export: implementation of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP,

Added– having regard to the EU Foreign Affairs Council conclusions on Egypt of August 2013 and February 2014,

Removedhaving regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2020/1998 and to Council Decision (CFSP 2020/199 of 7 December 2020 concerning restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses,

Added– having regard to the statements by the European External Action Service (EEAS) Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on Egypt, and in particular that of 21 November 2020 on recent arrests of human rights activists,

Changed– having regard to DROI pressthe statement of 23by Novemberthe 2020Spokesperson onfor the arrestsUN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Egypt of human20 rightsNovember defenders,2020,

Change 2

Removedhaving regard to the conclusions of the EU Foreign Affairs Council of 21 August 2013 and February 2014,

Added– having regard to the call from UN experts of 27 November 2020 for the release of Egyptian human rights defenders who were incarcerated after meeting diplomats, and to the experts’ statement of 7 December 2020 on the decision to release on bail three senior staff members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) ,

Removedhaving regard to the EU-Egypt Association Agreement of 2001, which entered into force in 2004, strengthened by the Action Plan of 2007; having regard also to the EU-Egypt Partnership Priorities 2017-2020, adopted on 25 July 2017, to the joint statement issued following the 2017 EU-Egypt Association Council, and to the joint statement on the 6th meeting of the EU-Egypt Subcommittee on Political Matters, Human Rights and Democracy in June 2019,

Added– having regard to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of Egypt of 2019-2020,

Removedhaving regard to Articles 2, 3(5), 21, 24, 29 and 31 of the Treaty on European Union and Article 10 and 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which commit the EU and its Member States, in their relations with the wider world, to upholding and promoting universal human rights and the protection of individuals, and adopting restrictive measures in case of grave human rights breaches,

Added– having regard to the joint statement of 13 May 2020 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on COVID-19 in prisons and other closed settings,

Removedhaving regard to the Egypt country report of the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2019 adopted by the Council of the European Union on 15 June 2020,

Added– having regard to the EU-Egypt Association Agreement of 2001, which entered into force in 2004 and was strengthened by the Action Plan of 2007; having regard to the EU-Egypt Partnership Priorities 2017-2020, adopted on 25 July 2017, to the joint statement issued following the 2017 EU-Egypt Association Council, and to the joint statement on the sixth meeting of the EU-Egypt Subcommittee on Political Matters, Human Rights and Democracy of 23-24 June 2019,

Removedhaving regard to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of Egypt of 2019-2020,

Removedhaving regard to the EEAS statements by the Spokesperson of 21 November 2020 on recent arrests of human rights activists in Egypt, 24 November 2019 on the raid of Mada Masr media and 24 April 2019 on the constitutional amendments in Egypt,

Removedhaving regard to the statement by the President of the European Parliament, ‘EP-President Sassoli calls for immediate release of Patrick Zaky’, of 12 February 2020,

Removedhaving regard to the statement by the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of 20 November 2020 on the detention of human rights defenders in Egypt,

– having regard to the EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty, on Torture, on Freedom of Expression and on Human Rights Defenders,

Change 3

Removedhaving regard to the UNODC, WHO, UNAIDS and OHCHR joint statement on COVID-19 in prisons and other closed settings of 13 May 2020 and OHCHR press briefing of 3 April 2020 on Egypt,

Added– having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which have been ratified by Egypt,

Changed– having regard to the Convention against TortureConstitution andof otherEgypt, Cruel,notably Inhumanits orArticle Degrading52 Treatmenton orthe Punishmentprohibition of 1985,torture thein Conventionall onforms theand Rightstypes.), ofArticle the73 Childon freedom of 1989,assembly and the ArabArticle Charter93 on Human Rights ofthe 2004,binding whichcharacter haveof beeninternational ratifiedhuman byrights Egypt,law,

Changed– having regard to the InternationalAfrican CovenantCharter on CivilHuman Rights and PoliticalPeoples Rightsof (ICCPR),1981, toratified whichby Egypt ison a20 party,March 1984,

Change 4

Removedhaving regard to the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) of 2015,

– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

Changed– having regard to the EURule 2020-24144(5) Actionand Plan132(4) onof Humanits RightsRules andof Democracy,Procedure,

Change 5

Removedhaving regard to Rules 144 of its Rules of Procedure.

AddedA. whereas the human rights situation in Egypt has continued to deteriorate as authorities intensify their crackdown on civil society, human rights defenders, health workers, journalists, opposition members, academics and lawyers, and continue to brutally and systematically repress any form of dissent, thereby undermining core freedoms, notably the freedoms of expression, both online and offline, and of association and assembly, political pluralism, the right to participation in public affairs and the rule of law;

RemovedWhereas the human rights situation in Egypt has sharply deteriorated since September 2019 in response to anti-government demonstrations protesting austerity measures, endemic government corruption, high cost of living and systematic repression; whereas since the beginning of the demonstrations, more than 4.000 citizens have been arbitrarily detained, including several human rights defenders under grave charges including “joining an illegal organisation”; whereas an estimated 60,000 people are imprisoned in Egypt on political grounds;

AddedB. whereas following their meeting with 13 foreign ambassadors and diplomats on 3 November 2020, three activists from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), one of the last independent human rights organisations in Egypt, Gasser Abdel Razek, Karim Ennarah and Mohammad Basheer, were arrested by security forces and charged with terrorism and national security-related offences between 15 and 19 November 2020;

RemovedWhereas this is part of a larger crackdown on civil society and fundamental democratic rights in Egypt, notably on freedoms of expression both online and offline, of association and assembly, political pluralism, the right to participation in public affairs and the rule of law;

AddedC. whereas following national and international expressions of concern, including from the OHCHR, the spokesperson for the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) and the Member States, on 3 December 2020 the activists were granted bail and released while the charges were maintained; whereas despite their release on 6 December 2020, an Egyptian court handling terror-related cases upheld a prosecutor’s decision to freeze their assets until the investigations have been carried out;

RemovedWhereas human rights lawyers, journalists, activists and members of the opposition have been jailed under grave charges including terrorism-related ones, “joining an illegal organisation, “demonstration without a permit,” and “spreading false news”; whereas peaceful dissenters, pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders are put at risk as they are labelled as terrorists; whereas these arrests are solely motivated by their peaceful and legitimate work in defence of human rights, or doing their work as journalists, or attempting to exercise the right to peaceful political participation; whereas illegal digital surveillance is conducted on their work, their social media accounts and personal devices;

AddedD. whereas the crackdown on EIPR started in 2016, when the bank accounts of former EIPR director and founder Hossam Bahgat were frozen and he was banned from leaving the country; whereas the EIPR provides an invaluable service in promoting personal, political, civil, economic and social rights and freedoms in the country;

RemovedWhereas enforced disappearances of human rights defenders and journalists have become a systematic practice of the Egyptian authorities, before most re-appear in the hands of the State Prosecution, such as Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din, Asmaa Daabes, Esraa Abdel Fattah, Solafa Magdy, Hossam el-Sayyad, Mohamed Ibrahim, Abdelrahman Tarek, Ezzat Ghoneim, Haytham Mohamadeen, and Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy;

AddedE. whereas on 7 February 2020, EIPR gender rights researcher and postgraduate Erasmus student at Italy’s University of Bologna, Patrick George Zaki, was arbitrarily arrested at Cairo International Airport; whereas, according to his lawyer, Patrick George Zaki was subjected to a 17-hour interrogation by Egypt’s National Security Agency before being transferred to Mansoura, where he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks; whereas Patrick George Zaki was charged with disseminating subversive propaganda, incitement to protest and instigation to terrorism, among other charges; whereas, while his health situation puts him at particular risk of contracting COVID-19 in Tora Prison, Patrick George Zaki’s pre-trial detention has continuously been extended for the past 10 months; whereas the Erasmus programme has been regarded as one of the most successful initiatives for the promotion of EU core values; whereas the detention of Patrick George Zaki during the course of his fellowship in Europe represents a threat to these values and the EU must do everything in its power find a solution to this case;

RemovedWhereas pre-trial preventive detention and precautionary measures are being used punitively in order to prevent human rights defenders and their lawyers, such as Mahienour El-Masry, Patrick George Zaki, Mohamed El-Baqer, Esraa Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Ramadan and Ramy Shaath, from carrying out their legitimate human rights work in Egypt; whereas probationary measures are excessively used to punish those who have served their prison terms as in the case of photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (Shawkan); whereas human rights defenders already in detention, including Mohamed al-Baqer, Ramy Shaath, Zyad al-Elaimy and Alaa Abdelfattah have arbitrarily been added to Egypt’s “terrorist list” in 2020 without due process or evidence of the allegations on which the decision was based;

AddedF. whereas media freedom in Egypt has been declining over the past years given the restricted space for journalists; whereas journalists and their family members are increasingly persecuted and face detention, threats and intimidation; whereas Egyptian authorities continue to block the websites of local and international news organisations and human rights organisations;

RemovedWhereas grave violations of the right to life continue in Egypt, notably through the judiciary, which has issued and implemented an unprecedentedly high number of death sentences against many individuals -even sentencing children- including following military and mass trials that lacked the minimum guarantees for fair trials; whereas more than 110 people have been executed in 2020, with 66 of these executions having taken place since 3 October, and at least 40 persons are at imminent risk of execution, including Wael Tawadros, known as Father Isaiah, sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial, and a conviction based on his torture-tainted ‘confessions’; whereas at least 17 juveniles have received death sentences since 2011;

AddedG. whereas tens of thousands of human rights defenders, including women’s rights activists, LGBTI activists, lawyers, journalists, activists, peaceful dissenters and members of the opposition remain imprisoned in life-threatening conditions; whereas the enforced disappearance of human rights defenders is becoming a systematic practice of the Egyptian authorities; whereas pre-trial preventive detention and precautionary measures are used in order to prevent activists and their lawyers from carrying out their legitimate human rights work or from peacefully exercising their fundamental freedoms in Egypt;

RemovedWhereas the situation in Egypt’s overcrowded and unsanitary places of detention put detainees at increased risk of transmission of COVID-19; whereas there are serious reports of systematic ill-treatment, as well as deprivation of food, medicine, and medical care, including urgently needed cancer treatment and psychiatric medications while the detainees are in custody; whereas the Egyptian government has placed additional restrictions on the prison population, limiting access to prisoners, withdrawing the right to receive letters, books and media print, restricting critical information from being shared with families, and renewing detention periods without proper hearings; whereas a 24 August 2020 UN Special Procedures joint statement states that lengthy and unnecessary pre-trial detention of scores of Egyptian human rights defenders is putting them at grave and unnecessary risk during the COVID-19 pandemic; whereas arbitrary arrests, harassment and repression of medical workers and journalists for speaking out about the COVID-19 situation or the State response have also been recorded;

AddedH. whereas Egyptian civil society activists, human rights defenders, journalists and academics should be able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance or fear of reprisals against them or their relatives; whereas illegal digital surveillance is conducted on their work, social media accounts and personal devices;

RemovedWhereas no serious investigations have been launched into the many recent torture reports and allegations, including against recently arrested human rights defenders, and due process for victims of torture is still absent;

AddedI. whereas the counter-terrorism legislation introduced under the rule of President al-Sisi is criticised by many human rights organisations for giving the authorities a dangerously large scope of interpretation and being misused to silence human rights defenders, their lawyers, activists and members of the opposition; whereas suspects in terror cases often do not receive fair trials, as they are referred directly to military courts; whereas according to Human Rights Watch, since the 2013 military coup, the Egyptian authorities have put around 3 000 people on terrorist lists, sentenced 3 000 people to death, and put 60 000 people in detention;

RemovedWhereas in November 2020, Egyptian security forces arrested three senior employees of the human rights organisation Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Mohammed Basheer, Kareem Ennarah and Gasser Abdel El Razek; whereas Mohammed Basheer, Kareem Ennarah and Gasser Abed El Razek were charged with membership of a terrorist organisation, funding terrorism and ‘spreading false news’ that undermined public security;

AddedJ. whereas according to civil society organisations, Egypt has executed at least 110 people in 2020, with 66 of those executions having taken place since 3 October 2020, meaning that more people have been executed in the past two months than in the whole of 2019; whereas at least 39 people are at risk of imminent execution; whereas these sentences reportedly follow grossly unfair trials marred by forced ‘confessions’ and other serious human rights violations, including torture and enforced disappearances, that lack any serious investigation into these acts and due process for victims, such as in the case of Coptic Christian monk Isaiah al-Maqari; whereas children continue to be sentenced to death; whereas Article 122 of Egypt’s Child Law remains of serious concern as it allows children to be tried in mass trials in adult courts in certain circumstances and has led to at least 17 juveniles receiving death sentences since 2011;

RemovedWhereas, on 3 November 2020, EIPR hosted a meeting with ambassadors of EU Member States, representatives of the European Commission, and other diplomats on the human rights situation in the country; whereas Mohammed Basheer was subjected to questioning in regard to this meeting;

AddedK. whereas there has been an ongoing state of emergency in Egypt since 10 April 2017; whereas mass trials continue to proceed despite widespread international condemnation that they are simply unfit to meet the basic requirements of international law on due process and fair trial rights; whereas more civilians are being tried in military courts than ever before;

RemovedWhereas, following national and international expressions of concern, including from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the spokesperson of the VPC/HR and EU Member States, Mohammed Basheer, Kareem Ennarah and Gasser Abed El Razek were released on bail on 3 December 2020; whereas the charges against them were not dropped;

AddedL. whereas sexual violence and harassment against women have plagued Egyptian society in recent decades as survivors are often blamed, and authorities have done little to prosecute suspects or to challenge discriminatory norms that underpin such violence; whereas abusive practices such as virginity testing are still widespread, including by the Egyptian authorities; whereas the law on violence against women, which has been stalled in the Egyptian Parliament since 2017, is still to be ratified; whereas existing policies and laws against FGM are not well enforced and the practice continues; whereas women rights defenders and feminist activists continue to face repression;

RemovedWhereas restrictive measures against them, including asset freezes were upheld on 6 December in spite of their release three days prior; whereas the fact that the judge in their case refused their legal representation during the hearing on their asset freezes of 1 December represents a blatant violation of their right to a fair trial;

AddedM. whereas on 10 December 2020, and after a four-year judicial investigation, Italian prosecutors in Rome announced that they had unequivocal proof of the involvement of four Egyptian state security officers on the aggravated kidnap, aggravated injury and murder of the Italian research assistant Giulio Regeni; whereas the lawyers of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) continue to provide their support to the Regeni legal team in Italy, as they are the legal representatives in Egypt; whereas the Egyptian authorities have constantly hindered progress in investigating and revealing the truth about the kidnapping, torture and killing of Giulio Regeni and the death of French teacher Eric Lang, who had been detained in Cairo in 2013, preventing the possibility for those responsible to be held accountable;

RemovedWhereas the crackdown on EIPR has started since 2016, when the bank accounts of former EIPR director and founder Hossam Bahgat were frozen and he was banned from leaving the country;

AddedN. whereas the EU is Egypt’s first economic partner and its main source of foreign investment; whereas in June 2017, the EU and Egypt adopted partnership priorities that set out to enhance cooperation in a wide-range of areas, including in the area of security, counter-terrorism and judiciary reform;

RemovedWhereas on 7 February 2020, EIPR gender rights researcher and postgraduate student at Italy’s University of Bologna, Patrick George Zaki, was arbitrarily arrested at Cairo International Airport; whereas, according to his lawyer, Patrick George Zaki was subjected to a 17-hour interrogation by Egypt’s National Security Agency before being transferred to Mansoura, where he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks; whereas Patrick George Zaki was charged among others with subversive propaganda, incitement to protest, and instigation to terrorism; whereas, while his health situation puts him at particular risk of contracting COVID-19 in Tora Prison, Patrick George Zaki’s pre-trial detention has continuously been extended for the past 10 months; whereas the President of the European Parliament has requested Zaki’s immediate release;