The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which specializes in monitoring the international humanitarian situation, has denounced on Sunday that the Egyptian authorities have arrested in recent days dozens of people who have called for demonstrations and restricted their right to protest in the days leading up to the COP27 climate summit in the tourist resort of Sharm el Sheikh.
There, authorities have ordered cameras to be placed in all cabs in the area for security agencies to monitor passengers and drivers, and implemented an «unduly complex» registration process designed, according to HRW, to limit public participation in the summit.
For HRW’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adam Coogle, «it is clear that the Egyptian government» led by former military coup leader Abdelfatá al Sisi «has no intention of relaxing its abusive security measures or allowing freedom of expression or assembly».
Among the arrests, HRW highlights that of Indian climate change activist Ajit Rajagopal as he was about to undertake an eight-day march from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh. Rajagopal was released the following day after international criticism.
The governor of South Sinai province, Khaled Fouda, has warned that security forces will only allow rallies in designated area away from the summit. «No one who is not registered will be allowed in,» he told Sada al Balad television late last month.
Demonstrations must be held with 36 hours’ notice in the areas closest to the summit and with 48 hours’ notice elsewhere in the city, and only between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Participants must be properly identified.
HRW also recalls that the Egyptian government requires all attendees to download an application that collects personal information and requires access to the camera, microphone and location service of the cell phone. «A lot of data,» the group notes, «that raises concerns about participants’ right to privacy.»
The NGO recalls that international law guarantees everyone the right to free, active and meaningful participation in public affairs at international, national, regional and local levels. The right to participation, it adds, is inextricably linked to other human rights such as the right to peaceful assembly and association and freedom of expression.
«Arresting Egyptians simply for calling for protests a few days before the COP is not only a violation of freedom of expression and assembly, it is also a direct message to COP participants to stay in line,» Coogle has reiterated.
