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During a rare review of Egypt’s human rights record, Hillel Neuer took the floor in the United Nations debate to call out Cairo’s hypocrisy on Gaza, and its awful practices on political prisoners. Where others were silent, UN Watch told the truth. 

United Nations Human Rights Council, July 2, 2025:

Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Hegazy:  “The Egyptian Constitution enshrines human rights, principles, and fundamental freedoms as the foundation of the political system…”

Hillel Neuer: “Mr. Chair,  Egypt claimed that it respects the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. If so, why is it holding 60,000 political prisoners?  

Why did it create the Supreme State Security Prosecution, ostensibly to punish terrorism, but which has been mostly used to target human rights activists, to crush free speech? 

The latest victim is activist Dalia Ziada. The Public Prosecutor accuses her of high treason. Her crime? She publicly condemned the Hamas massacre of October 7th.  We ask Egypt: Is this respect for civil and political rights? 

In today’s report, Egypt speaks about its commitment to refugees. Last week, Egypt told this Council that Gaza is suffering one of the greatest humanitarian crises in modern history. So Egypt claims to care about the people of Gaza. But is this true?

Let us consider.

When Hamas launched the invasion, they subjected two million people in Gaza to war and suffering.

Egypt, you used to occupy Gaza for 19 years until 1967, which is just next door. You have massive empty land in the Sinai.

When appeals were made for you to temporarily grant asylum to the innocent civilians of Gaza, why did you say no? 

If weeks after Russia’s invasion, Poland welcomed 1.3 million Ukrainians; if in the last two years, 3 million Sudanese were taken in by their neighbors; Turkey took in 3.7 million Syrians; then we ask you:  Egypt, why haven’t you shown the same basic humanity for your neighbors, for your own Arab and Muslim brothers? 

If you care for the people of Gaza, why won’t you offer them temporary asylum, as so many other nations in this room have done for their neighbors facing a humanitarian emergency? 

Now, the masses were abandoned. But you did allow some to cross your sealed border. But why did you force these refugees to pay thousands of dollars—and why to a company linked to Egyptian state security and your president, al-Sisi—profiting over $100 million off their desperation? 

Do you really care for the people of Gaza?”

I took the floor at the United Nations during a rare review of Egypt’s human rights record: Why is Egypt holding 60,000 political prisoners? Why are they prosecuting activist @DaliaZiada for the crime of condemning Hamas? Why are they abandoning and oppressing Gazans? pic.twitter.com/BLrnq4jaxs

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 3, 2025

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GENEVA, Nov. 26, 2018 — UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer issued the following comment on Egypt’s establishment of a “High Permanent Commission For Human Rights”:
“This is an Orwellian agency, pretending to be a commission for human rights, when in fact its purpose is to shield Cairo’s repressive regime from legitimate scrutiny of both domestic and international human rights activists, and to hide its gross and systematic rights abuses.”
“The commissioners are not independent monitors but the very opposite: military, intelligence and other regime officials who oversee a police force accused of torture and arbitrary arrests.”
“Because Egypt is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and therefore legally obliged to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, we urge UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet to hold the al-Sisi regime accountable for this worrying move, and to remind Egypt of its international obligations.”
“The UN needs to tell Egypt that at a time of escalating allegations of the regime’s arbitrary detentions and suppression of free speech, Cairo should be investing its energies in combating its own abuses, instead of fighting those who courageously point them out.”
“Regrettably, given that the UN Human Rights Council itself is composed of numerous serial rights abusers such as Egypt, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Venezuela, it’s entirely possible that the idea of subverting human rights agencies is something that Egypt learned from the UN itself.”

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GENEVA, June 12, 2017 – The chair of today’s UN Human Rights Council debate, council vice-president Amr Ahmed Ramadan of Egypt, broke with parliamentary protocol and refused to thank the representative of UN Watch after he challenged a new report that blames Israel for when Palestinian men commit violence against women, and asked why Islamic preachers of wife-beating were ignored.
The U.N. expert — who slammed Israeli counter-terrorism measures for their “gendered impact” on Palestinian women yet failed to cite Palestinian stabbings or rocket attacks for their “gendered impact” on Israeli women — failed to answer UN Watch director Hillel Neuer’s question about the source of her data for blaming Israel for Palestinian violence against women. See below.

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Testimony before the U.N. Human Rights Council by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, June 12, 2017.
Mr. Chairman, today’s report on Israel and the Palestinian territories provides important information on women targeted by violence.
Regrettably, however, the report is undermined by its subservience to one recurring unproven assumption. As highlighted by the rapporteur, that is the “clear linkage between the prolonged occupation and violence against women.”
Ms. Simonovic, in other words, what you are saying is as follows: “When Palestinian men beat their wives, it’s Israel’s fault.”
In this regard, I wish to pose some questions:
First: how do you know there is a “clear linkage”? Where is the data? I don’t see it anywhere in the report, not in Addendum 1 or 2.
Is it right to continue infantilizing Palestinians, such that when a man in Ramallah beats his wife, we encourage him to say ‘Israel made me do it’?
Your report speak of Israeli actions that create pressure. Well, maybe. Yet there may be a myriad of other influences. How do you know which is significant?
It would be interesting, for example, to examine comparable populations in in Lebanon, Jordan, Sinai and Egypt, and to see if there are differences in the rate of violence against women. Ms. Simonovic, why have you not done so? Where is the data?
Second: You make a passing reference to the influence of “tradition and culture.” Do you mean Palestinian, Arab or Muslim tradition? You don’t say which, and don’t seem to be interested in this key factor in the Middle East.
Why did you fail to mention that official Palestinian TV regularly broadcasts Islamic preachers who tell the people how to beat their wives?
On February 8, 2016, for example, Hassan al-Laham, the Mufti of Gaza, quoting the Koran and the Hadith, advised husbands on how to beat their wives, recommending: “Hitting that does not make her ugly; in other words, not hitting that will bring the police… The hitting will be like a joke.  The hitting is a kind of reminder that the love and friendship that Allah commanded is still found between the couple.”
Ms. Simonovic, while you find numerous indirect ways to blame Israel, how could you omit these forms of direct incitement? Why do you not mention terrorism against Israeli women?

Chair of Session, UNHRC Vice-President Amr Ahmed Ramadan: 

“I would like to say thank you, but I can’t—because I think that you need to respect this Council more in the next days.”

Response of Dubravka Šimonovic, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women:

Click here for video of response.

But maybe just one sentence before closing. A question from NGO with respect to situation when Palestinian man is beating his wife and is it then the responsibility of Israel.

Here I would like to respond that in each and every country, any man who is beating his wife is responsible – he is perpetrator of violence. But when we are speaking about human rights responsibility and due diligence responsibility, then we are at a different level, because states have due diligence responsibility to prevent violence against women and to establish measures to prevent such violence; to punish perpetrators of violence and to provide compensation to victims.

Of course, each case should be analyzed as a specific case and we have to determine who is responsible for what, but it is not possible to have such generalization, as was done by that NGO representative.

Text of the Reports

Here is how the two reports presented today before the UNHRC by Dubravka Šimonovic, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, argue that Israel is to blame for Palestinian violence against women.

Mission to Israel Report:

• “the Rapporteur highlights the clear linkage between the prolonged occupation and violence against women” (par. 10)

Mission to the State of Palestine:

• “the mandate holder highlights the clear linkage between the prolonged occupation and violence against women” (par. 11)
• “The Special Rapporteur noted that violence against women occurs both in private and public spheres, women suffering multiple sources of discrimination and violence: they suffer the violence of the Israeli occupation, whether directly or indirectly…” (pars. 23, repeated at par. 90)
• “the economic situation, the level of unemployment and the pressure of the occupation have a greater impact on
  women’s and children’s lives, making them more vulnerable to domestic violence, in particular in Gaza, due to the constant pressure felt by the blockade and the recurring cycles of conflict, and the overcrowding that limits their mobility and privacy. It was noted, in particular in relation to the situation in Gaza that the political situation also serves as “mitigating circumstance” that makes violence against women more acceptable…” (par. 32)
• There is also an increased pressure for girls to get married where in the context of the occupation, marriage being seen as a coping strategy but also to cover up rape and incest. (par. 39)
• “the occupation is a real obstacle to the State [of Palestine]’s due diligence obligation to prevent violence against women in areas where it does not have full jurisdiction…” (par. 47)
• Decades of Israeli occupation in parallel with the continuation of patriarchal attitude in Palestinian society expose women to subordination and continuing violence” (par. 54)

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(Source: Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press.)

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• Egypt will promote the constructive role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society at large in the “promotion of human rights at all levels”
• Egypt has played a “key role” in the advancement of “human rights and fundamental freedoms”
• Continue to support initiatives and processes to advance the “empowerment of women” and “equality between men and women”
• Egypt as contributed to the “enhancement of the system” of international protection for “migrants, refugees and asylum seekers”

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Letter from Egyptian Ambassador Amr Ramadan to H.E. Ambassador Kyonglim Choi, President of the Human Rights Council
Geneva, 29 July 2016
Your Excellency,
I am addressing you with reference to the appointment of an Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity pursuant to Human Rights Council’s resolution 32/2 adopted by recorded vote on 30 June 2016 and in the context of my current membership of the Consultative Group of the Human Rights Council, serving in my personal capacity. In this connection, I am keen to highlight the following points:
– This mandate was created at the backdrop of unprecedented divisiveness and polarization with a level that has never been associated with the creation of any other mandate. It is noteworthy that the paragraphs relevant to the creation of the mandate were retained by a recorded vote of 19 to 17 and 6 abstentions, not to mention that the resolution as a whole was modified by an unprecedented number of accepted amendments. These very specific circumstances significantly compromise the legitimacy of the created mandate;
– Contrary to the announced explanation that this mandate will be restricted to combating violence and discrimination, which are already addressed through other resolutions and existing mandates, it is crystal clear that this resolution and the mandate emanating from it are designed for codifying new and distinct set of rights and protection for a specific group of individuals. For this reason, I am of the firm conviction that the creation of this mandate is in Ulta Vires to international human rights law and is beyond universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms in a manner that amounts to utter disregard to the principle of universality of internationally agreed human rights as outlined in international human rights law[1];
– The announced formal position delivered on 1st of July 2016 on behalf of the OIC group (except Albania), at the explanation of vote after the vote on resolutions and decisions adopted under agenda item 3 during the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council, reiterated that OIC Member States shall boycott this mandate and shall not recognize its creation nor cooperate or interact with it in any form or format.
Bearing in mind the aforementioned considerations, I would like to bring to your kind attention that I have decided not to take part at the work of the Consultative Group relevant to its upcoming recommendation on the selection of this mandate-holder. I find it difficult to engage in an exercise which is contrary to my convictions and the values I stand for.
My decision in this regard is also in line with Pp4 bis of the said resolution (32/2) that stressed the need to maintain joint ownership of the international human rights agenda and to consider human rights issues in an objective and non-confrontational manner, as well as Pp4 Quart on “Reiterating the importance of respecting regional, cultural and religious value systems as well as particularities in considering human rights issues;”, Pp4 Quint on “Underlining that fundamental importance of respecting the relevant domestic debates at the national level on matters associated with historical, cultural, social and religious sensitivities;”, Pp4 Sept where the Council expressed concern at “any attempt to undermine the international human rights system by seeking to impose concepts or notions pertaining to social matters, including private individual conduct, that fall outside the internationally agreed human rights legal framework, taking into account that such attempts constitute an expression of disregard for the universality of human rights;” and Pp4 Octi on “Underlining that this resolution should be implemented while ensuring respect for the sovereign right of each country as well as its national laws, development priorities, the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of its people and should also be in full conformity with universally recognized international human rights;”.
Allow me, Mr. President, to take the liberty to inform my fellow colleagues at the Consultative Group and Member States with my decision in this respect.
I continue to look forward for future opportunities for cooperating with you in relation to the Consultative Group and issues of mutual interest and concern and on the basis of genuine and constructive dialogue towards the global protection of universally recognized human rights.

Sincerely,
Ambassador Amr Ramdan
Permanent Representative of Egypt
cc: H.E. Ambassador Elizabeth Lauren
Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in Geneva
& Current Chair of the Consultative Group of the Human Rights Council
[1] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. the two International Covenants and the core international human rights treaties.

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Today: UNHRC to confirm nominees of Egyptian-led panel

Agnes Callamard appointed UN expert on summary executions by panel
chaired by Egypt which killed 1,000 protesters in one day

GENEVA, July 8, 2016 — A representative of the Egyptian regime of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has replaced the delegate of Saudi Arabia as chair of the UN Human Rights Council panel which nominates global investigators, which this week will include the new UN expert on summary executions—even though Egyptian forces summarily killed an estimated 1,000 protesters in a single day less than three years ago.
Egypt’s ambassador in Geneva, Amr Ramadan, is one of five diplomats on the UNHRC Consultative Group, which is responsible for interviewing, shortlisting and recommending UN human rights experts who report on specific countries or global themes. The Egyptian-led committee performs a key role in the selection of what are now 77 top human rights investigators and advisers serving the Human Rights Council.
Egypt chaired the panel which recently nominated Agnes Callamard, director of Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression initiative, as the new monitor on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Egyptian forces committed the infamous Rabaa massacre on August 14, 2013 by slaughtering 1,000 protesters loyal to then recently-deposed President Mohamed Morsi. An Egyptian judge also ordered an estimated 720 executions against protesters on one day in 2014, following legal proceedings which were condemned as “a mockery of justice” by eight UN experts, including Christof Heyns, the UN expert on extrajudicial executions soon to be replaced.
Egypt’s Nominee Agnes Callamard Defended Saudi Chairmanship
Ms. Callamard is known to the committee in part because she defended its reputation in response to outrage over Saudi Arabia chairing the panel for much of 2015. Echoing the UN’s false and misleading statement, Callamard said the “UN is not responsible for the appointment in any way.” However, contrary to what both Callamard and the UN maintained, Saudi Arabia held the position for most of last year and was twice selected, while three other members of the committee—Greece, Algeria and Poland—never held the chairmanship. Greece was supposed to have the UNHRC position after Saudi Arabia in the end of 2015, but the Saudis were chosen again.
It was only in response to worldwide outrage last year that this year’s chairmanship rotates on a clear basis. Egypt is responsible for three of the appointments in 2016.
Egypt’s role at the head of the Consultative Group is problematic not only for symbolic reasons. It is likely to have material implications for the quality of experts chosen. Speaking anonymously to the Times of London, one candidate for a UN human rights expert position—interviewed last year by Saudi Arabian ambassador Faisal bin Hassan Trad—made the following remarks:

“Being interviewed and judged by specific people [representing countries] with a bad human rights record is annoying. It also makes a difference to the way you answer questions. You ask yourself, what does this diplomat want to hear? They want to hear that you’re going to be nice to them. I found it difficult to answer some questions because, actually, the answer was, ‘I’m going to criticize you’.”

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Swedish delegate joins UK, France, Germany and other EU states today in voting “Yes” to single out Israel at the 2016 WHO world assembly, May 25, 2016.

GENEVA, May 25 — The UK, France, Germany and other EU states voted today for a UN resolution, co-sponsored by the Arab group of states and the Palestinian delegation, that singled out Israel at the annual assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the only violator of “mental, physical and environmental health,” and commissioned a WHO delegation to investigate and report on “the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory” and in “the occupied Syrian Golan,” and to place it on the agenda again at next year’s meeting.
By contrast, the UN assembly did not address Syrian hospitals being bombed by Syrian and Russian warplanes, or millions of Yemenis denied access to food and water by the Saudi-led bombings and blockade, nor did it pass a resolution on any other country in the world. Out of 24 items on the meeting’s agenda, only one, Item No. 19 against Israel, focused on a specific country. The resolution was worse than last year’s text, adding several new accusations, many of them beyond the WHO’s remit.
UN Reaches New Heights of Absurdity 
“The UN reached new heights of absurdity today,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, “by enacting a resolution which accuses Israel of violating the health rights of Syrians in the Golan, even as in reality Israeli hospitals continue their life-saving treatment for Syrians fleeing to the Golan from the Assad regime’s barbaric attacks.”
“Shame on Britain, France and Germany for encouraging this hijacking of the annual world health assembly, and diverting precious time, money, and resources from global health priorities, in order to demonize Israelis, especially when, in reality, anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they are providing world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs, as well as to Syrians fleeing Assad,” Neuer added.
“At the same time,” said Neuer, “UN Watch commends the principled stand taken by the U.S., Canada, Australia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Micronesia and Papua New Guinea in joining Israel to oppose perpetuating a politicized agenda item.” The U.S. and Canada both took the floor today to strongly object to the anti-Israel exercise.
The vote was 107 to 8 for the resolution, with 8 abstentions and 58 absent. The resolution calls for reports on a series of alleged Israeli violations, including on “the impact of prolonged occupation and human rights violations on mental,
physical and environmental health” in “the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The text also adopted three reports mandated by last year’s Arab-sponsored resolution: a “field assessment” on “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory”, a similar report by the WHO director-general, and a related report by the WHO secretariat.
UN’s 2016 World Health Assembly voting on today’s anti-Israel resolution, May 25, 2016

Palestinian and Syrian Submissions
By backing the measure, EU states joined in the delegitimization of Israel—in the form of a special debate, three lopsided reports, the resolution, and the publication of country submissions, including an inflammatory 59-page Palestinian submission which complains of a “racist separation barrier” while blaming increased Palestinian traffic accidents on the fear of “being pursued by settlers”; and a Syrian submission laced with anti-Semitic conspiracy tropes, yet circulated as an official UN document on the conference agenda, which alleges that “the Israeli occupation authorities” continue “to experiment on Syrian and Arab prisoners with medicines and drugs and to inject them with pathogenic viruses.”
Unable to deny Israel’s medical treatment of thousands of wounded Syrians, the regime accuses Israel of a plot: healing “armed terrorists from Jabhah al-Nusrah” so that they can “resume their subversive terrorist activities directed against the country’s peaceful citizens and its infrastructure.”
Iran and Syria Take the Floor
Several countries took the floor ahead of the vote. Iran said Gaza was under “an inhuman blockade.” Syria said “the occupying Israeli forces continue their immoral practice, which punish our people in the Golan.”
Egypt accused Israel of “disregard for basic human rights.” Pakistan spoke of Israel’s “devastation of the health system in the occupied territories” and of a “wave of terror against the Palestinian civilian population.”

UNRWA, which received more than $400 million from the U.S. last year, said the root causes of Palestinian medical problems include “interference with basic human rights as a result of numerous policies of the Israeli authorities.”
The whole was met with delight in the overflow room for media and NGO representatives, who snickered and scoffed when the Israeli delegate took the floor to denounce the politicized resolution.
EU Joined the Jackals
Had the EU wanted, they could have set the record straight, and taken a stand against such base demonization of the Jewish state. Disgracefully, however, Britain, France, Germany and all other EU states joined the jackals by voting for today’s resolution.
The EU states could have introduced their own resolution about how Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of its own people, destroying the health rights of the Syrian people.
Yet the EU was silent. Instead, it justified its vote by claiming in its speech that today’s resolution was “technical.” This is the old Brussels-Ramallah wink-and-nod game: the PLO submits a more inflammatory text at the beginning, knowing it will be revised later to allow the Europeans to pretend they achieved a “balanced” text. Israel is then expected to celebrate that it has been lynched with a lighter rope.
Last month, France and Spain voted for an Arab-sponsored UNESCO resolution that contained the wild conspiracy claim that Israel was “planting fake Jewish graves” in Jerusalem.
With today’s vote, which robs the world health organization of limited time and resources in order to portray Israel as the world’s only violator of health rights—when in fact Israel is the beacon of the entire region on promoting and respecting the health rights of all people—the entire EU now descends into irrationalism.
By scapegoating the Jewish state for all the world’s health problems, just as medieval Europe once accused the Jews of poisoning the wells, the EU aids and abets the UN and its World Health Organization to betray the cause of humanity and the very principles upon which they were founded.
Internet link to this release

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