Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Egypt about breaches of civil and human rights in Egypt.

The British Government is committed to supporting the Egyptian people’s aspiration for a full and functioning democracy. We continue to believe that stability and prosperity in Egypt is dependent on open and inclusive politics and on full respect for the rights contained in the Egyptian constitution. That is why in recent months Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers have asked the Egyptian authorities to take action to release journalists and political detainees who remain imprisoned, to review mass judicial decisions, and to remove restrictions on civil society.

I personally raised human rights concerns with Egyptian Deputy Assistant Minister for Human Rights, Dr Mahy Abdel Latif on 14 January. We discussed the importance of women’s rights and the case of the imprisoned international journalists, who have since been deported or released pending a retrial. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), raised the need for political reform during his visit to Egypt on 13-15 January. He stressed the importance of upholding the fundamental human rights guaranteed in the Egyptian constitution.

Along with discussing human rights in our conversations with the Egyptian government, at the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Egypt’s human rights situation on 5 November 2014, the UK made recommendations focussing on the ability of civil society to operate freely and the protection of women’s rights.