Egypt and Human Rights
Yesterday I posted the video of Secretary Clinton’s remarks prior to meeting with a group of young Egyptian democracy activists and based upon some of the headlines I have seen today, it seems that Secretary Clinton’s statements about promoting democracy and human rights in Egypt ahead of she and President Obama’s trip to Cairo next week, was seen as a bit controversial.
While I understand human rights is always a sensitive issue, it really should not be all that surprising that a US official would stress the importance of human rights and democratic reform with respect to an authoritarian governments, given that those two principles have ideally been the basis for US diplomacy around the world. That is part of the reason why I believe President Obama must take a strong stand against the Bush-era policies of torture, indefinite detention, etc. – how can the US been seen as a credible partner in promoting human rights (let alone lecturing anyone about it) when it has become clear that we have fallen far short of our democratic ideals post-September 11th?
Sec’y Clinton has made clear that the issue of human rights will be on the table during Obama’s visit to Egypt:
It is in Egypt’s interest to show more respect for human rights, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday, hitting a raw nerve in U.S.-Egypt relations ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama.
Clinton met representatives of Egyptian pro-democracy groups at the State Department one day after she received Egypt’s foreign minister.
“It is in Egypt’s interest to move more toward democracy and to exhibit more respect for human rights,” Clinton told reporters as she was photographed with the activists.
[snip]
After meeting Clinton on Wednesday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the new administration was “very much different” from the previous one, using less rhetoric when it came to discussing issues such as human rights. “They also listen,” he said.
Asked specifically whether human rights concerns would be raised when Obama visits next week, Clinton said it was always on the agenda.
Some Egyptian democracy activists, however, see President Obama’s choice of Egypt to make such an important speech during his first trip to a Muslim country, as sending a mixed message:
In a highly anticipated visit to Cairo next week, US President Barack Obama will deliver an address to the Muslim world meant to open a new chapter in its ties with the United States.
But that is not the only message he will be sending, say many Egyptian democracy activists. They worry the visit signals the new administration’s support for Egypt’s autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled for 28 years, and that the man who came to office promising “Yes, we can,” did not include Arabs in that promise.
[snip]
“Where you deliver the message is part of the message,” says Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a democracy activist who has lived in exile in the US since 2007 and was twice convicted of “tarnishing Egypt’s reputation” for his critical writings. Few people know the ins and outs of Washington’s shifting attitude towards Egyptian reform better than Mr. Ibrahim, currently a visiting professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
“Delivering a message to the Muslim world from a capital whose ruler is authoritarian does not speak very well of Obama’s stand on democracy and human rights in Egypt or the Arab and Muslim world,” he says.
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The irony, which labels it all a lie, is the hypocritical fact that Hillary directs her sanctimonious sermon toward Egypt, one of the US’s staunchest partners in rendition and their outsourced torture industry.
It is almost as if, blind in their sense of invincibility or moral superiority, they cannot see the hypocricy and the fallacy of what they preach. As if they have been in bed with the neo-Zionist “chosen people” and their infallible superiority syndrome for so long now that, they have caught the common flu themselves and made it a part of their psyche too.
Debbie
Debbie: as I said in my post, the admin. Has to stand up against the Bush-era terrorism policies of torture, detention etc. I agree with you that we should not “outsource” torture and interrogation to Egypt. I wrote about this problem with Obamas “splitting the baby” so-to-speak following his speech at the Natl Archives- I have a real problem with his watered down version of Bush’s detention system and ongoing tribunals at Gitmo- we cannot expect, let alone demand, that other nations fully recognize human rights unless and until we do.