Egypt: UN Human right boss charges al-Sisi’s approach against terrorism

The Head of UN Human Right Commission has lambasted President al-Sisi’s strategy against terrorism as he argued that crackdown on human rights groups and activists fuels the surge in radicalization.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein speaking in Geneva Monday noted that even though Egypt deserves to stamp out terrorism, the limitation on human rights rolls out a red carpet for extremism.

“…a state of emergency, the massive numbers of detentions, reports of torture, and continued arbitrary arrests – all of this we believe facilitates radicalization in prisons,” Zeid said.

“…And abetted by the crackdown on civil society through travel bans, freezing orders, anti-protest laws, this in our opinion, it is not the way to fight terror.”

Egypt is facing one of its bloodiest eras in modern history, under President al- Sisi. The country has witnessed a significant surge in terror attacks against the former military general who has pledged to restore security since 2011 when the country slid into chaos.

Two Daech-sponsored terror attacks hit the country early last month, killing 45 Christian Orthodox. Besides attacks against the Christian minority, security forces have also been targeted mainly in the restive province of Sinai.

President al-Sisi following the attacks last month declared three-month state of emergency.

The human right situation has got worse in Egypt under al-Sisi who claims that security is a major issue for his administration.

Several rights groups have accused the Egyptian leader of condoning police abuses, illegal detentions, forced disappearance of rights activists, extrajudicial killings of opponents of the regime and even faking terror scenes and raids.

“National security yes, must be a priority for every country, but again not at the expense of human rights,” said Zeid.