On May 8, Egypt’s Permanent Supreme Committee for Human Rights, a body established in 2018 by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly, held a meeting with representatives of a number of state-aligned civil society groups to discuss an ambitious and equally dubious five-year national government strategy for human rights. The document, which was also reviewed the day after with the Committee for Human Rights of Egypt’s House of Representatives, will be the first of its kind and will serve as a guide for the government on how to improve human rights. It is set to go into effect by mid-2021.
“The five-year strategy is important [in order to] review and adopt a broader [approach to human rights], as they may develop over time,” parliament member Tarek Radwan, head of the House of Representatives’ Human Rights Committee, told Al-Monitor. “Human rights matters develop from time to time, and that is why it needs revision,” he added.