The timing could not have been more perfect for Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi. His country will host the next session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) scheduled to take place from 24 April to 14 May 2019 at a time when Egypt ranks as one of the worst violators of human rights in Africa.
Many in the human rights community in Africa, called on the African Commission not to accept the bid by Egypt to host the 64th Session of the African Commission because Egypt’s wanton human rights abuses starkly contradict the Commission’s mandate to protect and promote human and people’s rights. African civil society groups had called on the Commission to award the right to host the session to another country and not “raise its flag over the gravestone of human rights in Egypt.”
Ordinary sessions of the African Commission which are held at least twice in a year, often bring together hundreds of human rights defenders and representatives of civil society to discuss human rights concerns on the continent. The human rights record of Egypt and its treatment of Egyptian human rights defenders and journalists and those from other countries working in Egypt, raises concerns and questions over the security and effective participation of human rights defenders when they participate in the session.
