Arab Council for Human Rights urges Security Council to behave decisively on GERD issue

CAIRO – 8 July 2021: The Arab Council for Human Rights urged the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to behave decisively on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam issue as the council is set to meet tonight.

In a statement, the council said the second phase of filling the dam by the Ethiopian side is carried out unilaterally and represents a harm to the water rights of Egypt and Sudan in a way that threatens international security and peace.

Chief of the council, Abdel Gawad Ahmed, affirmed that the UNSC is in charge of considering the GERD dispute in accordance with the Charter of the UN due to its connection to the international security and peace.

“Ethiopia's unilateral filling of the dam constitutes a violation of the Declaration of Principles signed by the three countries and harms the peoples of Egypt and Sudan,” the statement read.

It also harms the two countries’ water rights established through international agreements that may not be infringed, according to the Middle East News Agency.

The council said and many Arab and international human rights organizations are calling on the UNSC to provide firm legal rather than political treatment to the GERD issue as peoples’ right in life and development is connected to their water right, Ahmed said.

The statement called on the UNSC to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard and take the required procedures toward the crisis in accordance with the UN Charter.

All Egyptian institutions and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi give the GERD the highest priority for being directly linked to Egyptian national security and the interest of the Egyptian people, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has said.

Shoukry told Extra News on Tuesday that all state agencies are in full coordination and address all the dimensions of the GERD issue as an existential cause that cannot be undermined.

He added that all state institutions have the ability, capacity, and sincere determination to defend the Egyptian right to water and to defend the Egyptian people and their capabilities, sparing no effort to achieve the interest and protection of Egyptians at the individual level. 

The Security Council will hold a session on GERD on Thursday upon Tunisia’s request with the following resolution terms:

The terms of the resolution proposed by Tunisia include:

1 – Demand that Ethiopia cease the second filling of the GERD

2 – Demand that Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia resume negotiations.

3 – Reach a binding agreement on GERD in six months.

4 – Demand that the three countries stop any measure that delays negotiations.

5 – Demand that Ethiopia stop unilateral decisions.