The ICJ today called on the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent monitoring mechanisms on Egypt and denounced several cases of extrajudicial executions in the country.
The statement reads as follows:
“Mr President,
The ICJ commends the report of the SR, and shares his analysis of the challenges in combatting impunity for serious human rights violations, and his concern that the 2016 revised Minnesota Protocol setting a common standard for the investigation of potentially unlawful deaths has yet to be implemented globally.
Since 2013, this Council has been repeatedly made aware of the worsening human rights crisis in Egypt, including with respect to extrajudicial killings committed with total impunity, such as the mass killing of demonstrators at Rabaa square in 2013.
More recently, Ayman Hadhoud, an Egyptian economist, was forcibly disappeared and died in the custody of security forces on 5 March this year. According to credible media sources, there are reasonable grounds to believe that he was subjected to torture before his death. The investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office has failed to etablish the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and death.
Egypt’s unwillingness to effectively investigate and prosecute crimes under international law committed by its security forces has heightened the structural impunity that prevails in the country. To address this accountability gap, the ICJ reiterates its call on this Council to establish an independent monitoring mechanism for the gross human rights violations committed in Egypt with forensic capabilities in accordance with the Minnesota Protocol.
I thank you.”
Contact:
Massimo Frigo, ICJ UN Representative, e: massimo.frigo(a)icj.org, t: +41797499949