(AFP PHOTO / AHMED TARANA)
By Jake Lippincott
The Swiss-based human rights group Alkarama, which was established to “assist all in the Arab world subjected to, or at risk of, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention” has issued a report concerning a record of human rights violations of the Egyptian interim government.
The report said: “Ever since the military takeover on 3 July 2013 and the appointment of Adly Mansour as interim President of the Republic, there has been a systematic campaign of killing of protesters who express their opposition to the government.”
The report goes one to say that while “disregard for the right to life has been a permanent feature since the outset of the revolution on 25 January 2011… it took a dramatic turn after 3 July 2013.”
The report also criticised the Egyptian legal establishment, saying: “[Government] prosecutors have failed to uphold human rights, and more importantly, accountability for human rights abuses.”
The report suggests that since the government has “failed to ensure accountability for the violations of the right to life… [and] in view of the gravity of the violations that have occurred in Egypt, it is time the [United Nations] Human Rights Council establishes a Commission of Inquiry into the violations committed against protesters since the military takeover.”
This is not the first call for the UN to intervene in Egypt. In the beginning of March, 27 UN members, including Turkey, Japan, the United States and several European countries, expressed their concern regarding “the restrictions on the rights to peaceful assembly” and security forces’ “disproportionate use of lethal force”, offering UN aid in establishing more comprehensive human rights laws in Egypt.
