VII. RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

• Refrain from obstructing the process of establishing the UN Human Rights Council as a replacement for the Commission on Human Rights, which has lost credibility and can no longer perform its role, and instead, exert positive efforts to ensure that the new Council enjoys the powers that will allow it to perform its duty independently and efficiently;

• Refrain from objecting to the foundation of the proposed Human Rights Council with a supervisory role over the situation of human rights in all countries of the world, and protecting these rights from violations by means of drawing the attention of the international community to these violations, and taking steps to prevent and remedy them. Human rights treaties constitute legally binding regulations by which states must abide, and these regulations will be meaningless without an international governmental apparatus to supervise and guarantee their implementation;

• Ensure that the new Council will maintain the system of special procedures represented by Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups, and cooperate with these experts by providing all forms of needed support for the performance of their duties, as well as issuing a standing invitation to them to visit Egypt, study the human rights situation, present recommendations to the government to improve these conditions, and refrain from any action that might cast doubt upon the integrity, impartiality or credibility of special procedures;

• Ensure that the new Council will apply the same regulations currently in force with regard to NGO participation in the work of the Commission on Human Rights – indeed, it would be preferable that these regulations were given greater flexibility to ensure increased and active NGO participation;

• Allow transparent public and media access to the details of the Egyptian position towards the issue of UN human rights reform before the date of the summit in September 2005 in New York;

•    Consult with independent Egyptian NGOs on the Egyptian position towards the issue of UN human rights system reform prior to the September Summit and take the NGO opinions into consideration when formulating the Egyptian position at the summit.


To the National Human Rights Council:

•  Take urgent steps to rectify the Egyptian official stance on the process of establishing a Human Rights Council, announce the National Council’s position regarding the Egyptian government’s negative actions, and work with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the recommendations of this report.