If COP27 is to succeed, the visibility and positive pressure created by civic mobilisation will be vital - that must include full rights to freedom of assembly, association, and expression around the conference, including for Egyptian civil society activists and journalists who are currently facing harsh repression for exercising these human rights.
But with only 100 days to go now until COP27 begins in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, we are deeply concerned that this will not be possible due to the repressive actions of the Egyptian government. Indeed, it seems more likely at this point that the conference will be used to whitewash human rights abuses in the country.
We join a recent call by 21 human rights organisations to state that: “We are alarmed at the Egyptian authorities’ unlawful restrictions on the rights to freedom of the press, of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, the severe constraints they have imposed on civil society, as well as their repression of peaceful political opposition and misuse of counterterrorism legislation to silence peaceful critics. Thousands continue to be arbitrarily detained in Egypt for peacefully practicing their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association. This includes staff of Egyptian independent civil society organizations, human rights defenders and activists in the field of economic, social, and cultural rights, and minority rights, as well as lawyers, journalists, academics, women social media influencers and artists.”
We echo all of the calls to action set out by the human rights organisations in their statement, including immediately and unconditionally releasing all those detained for practising their rights to freedom of expression, according to Egypt’s obligations under international law. This would signal that the Egyptian government is committed to ensuring that participants at COP27 may speak and assemble freely at the COP27 conference, without fear of reprisals. Prominent British-Egyptian activist and writer Alaa Abdel Fattah, on hunger strike for over 100 days and at risk of death, must be prioritised.
We call upon all of our climate envoys and political representatives to press with all urgency for these conditions to be met
SIGNATORIES:
Mary Church, head of campaigns interim co-director, Friends of the Earth Scotland
Sean Currie and Benedetta Scuderi, co-spokespeople of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG)
Mike Davis, executive director, Global Witness
Nick Dearden, director, Global Justice Now
Fiona Dove, executive director, Transnational Institute
Della Duncan, co-director, Upstream Podcast
Miatta Fahnbulleh, CEO, New Economics Foundation
Chris Garrard, co-director, Culture Unstained
Frances Guy, CEO, Scotland’s International Development Alliance
Claire Hanna, Social Democratic and Labour Party MP
Louise Hazan, co-founder, Tipping Point UK
Oli Henman, global coordinator, Action for Sustainable Development
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP
Fatima Ibrahim, co-director, Green New Deal Rising
Tessa Khan, director, Uplift
Naomi Klein, University of British Columbia Professor of Climate Justice
Hugh Knowles, co-executive director, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Mathew Lawrence, director, Common Wealth
Clive Lewis, Labour Party MP
Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP
Bill McKibben, co-founder 350.org and Third Act
Ellie Mae O’Hagan, director, CLASS think tank
Brendan Montague, editor, The Ecologist
Robert Noyes, co-director, Platform
Rhiannon Osborne, Co-Coordinator, The People’s Health Movement UK
Annie Pickering, co-director, Climate Emergency UK
Asad Rehman, executive director, War on Want
John Sauven, former executive director of Greenpeace UK
James Smith, co-director, MedAct
Fionna Smyth, head of global advocacy and policy, Christian Aid
Zarah Sultana, Labour Party MP
Mandeep Tiwana, chief programmes officer, CIVICUS
Annie Tourette, head of advocacy, Blue Ventures
Susie Ventris-Field, chief executive, Welsh Centre for International Affairs / Canolfan Materion Rhyngwladol Cymru
Max Wakefield, co-director, Possible
Nadia Whittome, Labour Party MP