Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have made any recent representations to the government of Egypt regarding human rights and rule of law.

The Government wants to see more political freedoms and better protection of human rights in Egypt. The Foreign Secretary and the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa have consistently raised this with our Egyptian counterparts. Mr Burt raised our human rights concerns, including those relating to media freedoms and restrictions on civil society, with Foreign Minister Shoukry and Interior Minister Ghaffar, during his visit to Egypt in August 2017. The Foreign Secretary last discussed human rights with Foreign Minister Shoukry in October 2017, when he raised the case of detained human rights lawyer Ibrahim Metwally. The Foreign Secretary also emphasised the importance of a free and open society when he met President Sisi during his visit to Cairo in February 2017. Egypt is an FCO Human Rights Priority Country and the UK regularly raises concerns about human rights in Egypt at the UN’s Human Rights Council.