The National Interest Foundation Newsletter

Issue 160, September 15, 2022

Welcome to our NIF Newsletter. In this week’s headlines: Human Rights Watch accuses the El-Sisi government of severely stifling the work of environmental groups as Egypt prepares to host a global climate change conference in November, a new U.N. International Labour Organization report details a troubling rise in forms of modern slavery around the world, experts highlight the deterioration of human rights under the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Emirati officials elicit criticism for media repression after dozens of newspaper journalists in the country are fired for covering a story on increased fuel prices.

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Thwarting of Activism Under El-Sisi

Human Rights Watch Accuses the El-Sisi Government of Severely Stifling the Work of Environmental Groups as Egypt Prepares to Host a Global Climate Change Conference in November

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report detailing various transgressions that the Egyptian government under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has engaged in against environmental groups within the country. The report is a follow-up to another posted by HRW earlier this year that also expressed concern about Egypt’s ability to justly host the 2022 U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP27) because of multiple human rights violations, which expand far beyond the scope of environmental issues alone. In fact, many freedoms, including the right to free speech and the right to assemble, have been curtailed at an increasing rate since El-Sisi took power in 2014. In the report, HRW makes it clear that it is not only possible that free speech rights would be limited at COP27, but that they already have been for years within Egypt. The list of actions taken by the Egyptian government to eliminate dissent is alarming, including measures such as restricted access to funding and research permits, and thousands of politically-motivated arrests. Many belonging to civil society groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have left Egypt altogether, and those that have stayed have completely changed their approaches in order to fall more in line with the government.

Moreover, some of HRW’s informants spoke about how the government has actually been supporting some environmental initiatives lately, but only those that serve their interests, such as trash collection and recycling. The topics that are most censored are those that directly accuse the government of wrongdoing, such as poisoning water supplies in attempts to build up tourist infrastructure or the plan to build a new administrative capital which would have a large environmental toll. El-Sisi’s government has even removed much of the little remaining green spaces in several of Egypt’s major cities, including Cairo, which is notoriously polluted and dry.

Furthermore, there are prior examples of poor human rights-related events in Egypt in past years. In 2019, the same city that is set to host COP27 hosted the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Participants were spied upon and generally restricted from participating free from government oversight. Some delegates were unable to receive visas due to intentional delays, and some were even physically abused by government security forces. Egypt Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry only increased discontent in May when he announced that there would be a designated space for onlookers to voice their opinions adjacent to the meeting hall. The statement led most to believe that protesting would not be allowed outside of that space, which is counter to the essence of such meetings. Shoukry did say that participants would be allowed to witness the discussion within the chamber itself.

Specifically, Human Rights Watch has requested that Egypt do the following: stop harassing civil society groups by lifting restrictions on travel, funding, etc., edit a 2019 law that hinders the right to assemble, end bans on websites, cease surveillance, and issue visas in a timely manner, among other things. HRW has also asked that the U.N. review with other governments their future host sites for the COP. As for Egyptian authorities, the government refuted HRW’s findings on Tuesday, although they only denied the notion that the government was intentionally making it difficult to get NGO permits. There was no comment on the crackdown of rights and freedoms which have been highlighted consistently by impartial watchdog groups like HRW and others in recent years.

Troubling Global Rise in Forms of Modern Slavery

A New U.N. International Labour Organization Report Details a Troubling Rise in Forms of Modern Slavery Around the World

A new report published by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) on Monday has detailed the substantial and alarming rise in forms of modern slavery around the world. Over the past five years, this number has soared to a now estimated 50 million people – an approximately 20% increase during this period of time. A multitude of factors have exacerbated the crisis and caused what the ILO outlined as an “unprecedented disruption to employment and education,” including the COVID-19 pandemic, an array of longstanding global armed conflicts, and climate change. Additionally troubling is the fact that the ILO stated that no region in the world is immune to forms of modern slavery, and it is not, as some might wrongfully assume, only a problem found in the developing world. ILO officials pointed out that it is present in nearly every country, and that more than half of forced labor cases and a quarter of forced marriage ones are found in upper-middle-income or high-income countries.

Of the estimated 50 million people worldwide trapped in forms of modern slavery, 28 million have been subjected to forced labor and 22 million to forced marriages. Women and children are the primary victims of these grotesque acts, as these groups are seen as the most vulnerable to them. Furthermore, 86% of forced labor is found in the private sector, with sexual exploitation accounting for 23% of all forced labor slavery. The estimated 22 million people living in forced marriages as of 2021 does not include unreported and uncaptured instances of it. Overall, the increase between 2016 and 2021 is a significant number of 6.6 million. The ILO and their partners found particular rises in forced and child marriages in countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Uganda, and Yemen.

The Arab states have the highest levels of forced marriages in the world with around 4.8 of every 1,000 people, while two-thirds of the total worldwide forced marriages are found in Asia and the Pacific region. Family and societal pressures are some of the key factors that drive forced marriages, as families can utilize this to gain a higher status, economic security, and ensure adherence to conservative gender roles. When it comes to forced labor, migrant workers are more than three times as likely to face this than non-migrant workers. Migrants are particularly vulnerable because of irregular and poorly-governed migration or unfair and unethical recruitment practices.

Forms of modern slavery are man-made problems stemming from the history of the slave trade and persistent inequality throughout the world. The ILO Director-General has urged for an all-hands-on-deck approach to aid in alleviating the crisis, compelling a variety of groups from trade unions to ordinary citizens to play a role. The U.S. State Department has also opened a program aimed at tackling the issues of modern slavery and human trafficking. The program’s primary goal is to measurably reduce trafficking within specific countries and industries, and it operates in places like Brazil, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, India, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, and Vietnam. Some of the proposed ways to make progress in addressing the crisis include improving and enforcing laws and labor inspections, ending state-imposed forced labor, imposing stronger measures to combat forced labor and trafficking in business and supply chains, extending social protections, and strengthening legal protections such as raising the legal age of marriage to 18 without exception.

Deterioration of Human Rights in Afghanistan

Experts Highlight the Deterioration of Human Rights Under the Taliban in Afghanistan

Independent experts have highlighted the notable deterioration of human rights in Afghanistan during the past 13 months since the August 2021 Taliban takeover. They have also outlined that stronger accountability measures are needed in order to investigate grave abuses which have become commonplace under the Taliban’s rule. The circumstances facing women and girls in Afghanistan have drawn particular concern, with rapid increases in systematic violations of fundamental rights such as access to education. In addition to this, a lack of social services and problems regarding aid reaching people in need are also major factors that have resulted in a worsening of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban has imposed harsh restrictions and repressive measures after initially pledging to respect the rights of women and minorities, rolling back basic human rights, targeting opponents and critics, and clamping down on freedom of expression.

Since August of 2021, there has been a prevalence of human rights violations committed by the Taliban, from their oppression of women and girls to the abolition of any independent group that oversees mechanisms to protect fundamental rights. In fact, observers point out that nowhere else in the world has seen women’s rights be so systematically attacked and restricted. Every aspect of their lives is watched under the guise of morality and a weaponized form of religion. Women and girls face the threat of violence such as extra-judicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, and heightened risks of exploitation. Furthermore, arbitrary killings of human rights defenders, political activists associated with the previous government, and minorities have also been reported at an alarming rate. Freedom of assembly has been attacked as the Taliban uses the excessive force of their police to crack down on protesters, who are subjected to being beaten, arrested, or killed. Freedom of the press has also been repressed, with the Taliban issuing statements banning journalists from publishing anything that is “contrary to Islam” or “insulting to national figures.”

A disturbing number of women and girls have been detained, and some even tortured, for merely holding peaceful protests. This has not stopped the movement as many still fearlessly march on the street demanding their rights to education and freedom. Since September of 2021, the Taliban has imposed a ban on girls moving on past the sixth grade. Thus, the demonstrators are fighting for the right to education, to walk around freely by themselves, to drive and be issued a license, and to not be seen as second-class citizens. The Taliban have also eroded mechanisms and services that were in place to provide protection and legal counseling to citizens, particularly women. They have replaced experienced judges with members of their party and courts no longer accept cases that relate to divorce, separation, or domestic violence.

A resurgence of the Taliban has left them in control of more of the country’s territory than at any previous time since 2001. This has also caused a major immigration crisis with tens of thousands fleeing the country and others internally displaced. The United Nations is trying to provide as much assistance as possible to these refugees via life-saving shelter, food, water, and relief items for both those still in Afghanistan and ones who have emigrated to neighboring countries. Amnesty International and multiple other rights organizations are attempting to maintain focus on the Taliban’s gross human rights violations and crimes under international law. Recently, the U.N. Human Rights Council held a conference about the situation in Afghanistan with the discussion covering issues like how to keep citizens safe, how to help Afghan women and make their voices heard, and how to restore justice in the nation.

Media Repression in the United Arab Emirates

Emirati Officials Elicit Criticism for Media Repression After Dozens of Newspaper Journalists in the Country are Fired for Covering a Story on Increased Fuel Prices

Last week, Lebanese news outlet Raseef22 published a story detailing the firing of as many as 90 employees from Emirati subsidiary Al-Roeya, which is part of the larger media group International Media Investments (IMI). In June, Al-Roeya released an article about the difficulties many low-income Emiratis were facing in response to high gas prices. Although editors were very aware of oppressive media laws, they had thought the story to be safe to release. Instead, the government required that the publication be removed before it even made it to the website, but not before it was widely circulated on social media. As of the end of June, much of Al-Roeya no longer exists. It appears that the reason for which the article spread so quickly is more or less the same reason that the Emirati government mandated its removal – the story centered on anonymous interviewees who described what they were being forced to do to save money amidst high gas prices caused by the war in Ukraine. This included taking trips to neighboring Oman, where gas is subsidized and half the price. Emirati officials’ actions are problematic for the UAE on multiple fronts. For one, it obviously does no favors for the Emirati economy. Secondly, it hurts the image that the UAE likes to project as an attractive, economically-advanced destination for international business and offers a clear example of the level of media repression used by authorities in the country.

Reportedly, eight top editors were first called in merely days after the publication was released, or only hours later according to some sources. After being thoroughly interrogated, the journalists were given the choice of voluntarily resigning or attempting to stay and facing charges. Those who voluntarily resigned had to sign an agreement declaring that they would not speak about why they left Al-Roeya. Within two weeks, the rest of the employees and the whole of the company were essentially wiped from existence, seemingly due to retaliation by the UAE government. However, IMI and the Emirati journalist union (not independent) have given a different reason for the mass firing and elimination of Al-Roeya. Both have stated that the massive cuts and release of the story have nothing to do with one another, despite the timeline of events pointing to the contrary. Rather, IMI and the union are taking the line that the cuts were made in preparation for Al-Roeya’s conversion into new CNN Business Arabic, which has been set to take place later this year. What is left of Al-Roeya are a number of business-only publications, as their culture and politics sections were taken down following the release of the story.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the removal of this story and the subsequent firing of so many employees was an act intended to repress the free speech of the media. The UAE has a concerning record when it comes to press freedom, ranking 138th in the world on the annual press freedom index released by Reporters Without Borders. A ranking of 138th puts the UAE in the “difficult situation” zone. Only the “very serious situation” demarcation is worse, which only consists of the 28 most silenced presses in the world. Moreover, the UAE has fallen from 119th in 2016 to the 138th they now sit at in 2022. Reports about tourism and the economy especially must be approved before they can be published, although all publications are subject to removal and censorship. Journalists can also lose their residency if the government disapproves of what they write.

There are countless historical examples of limits on freedom of speech in the UAE. In 2017, Arabian Business magazine was banned for a time for publishing a story revealing that the government was liquidating housing developments that failed to launch due to the 2009 recession. In 2016, Amina Al Abdouli was given a prison sentence of five years for tweets that “spoke ill of the government.” In that same year, two others were sentenced to prison terms for website and WhatsApp posts and another for what authorities deemed to be “controversial tweets.”