Egypt confirms keenness to help address xenophobia in Europe

CAIRO – 20 June 2018: Alaa Yousef, Egypt's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, delivered a speech before the Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

During his speech, Youssef reviewed the cooperation programs between Egypt and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, underlining the government’s strategy to promote human rights through the technical assistance programs.

He further expressed his wishes that such programs would help address the spread of xenophobia and hate speech in some western countries.

He talked about the visit of the six special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Commission to Egypt to learn about the Egyptian experience regarding the development of human rights.

He asserted Egypt's keenness to continue the dialogue with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, whether through its envoy in Geneva or by arranging interviews with senior officials participating in the sessions of the Human Rights Council.

Earlier in June, Egypt was elected as a member of the Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations (ECOSOC) for the tournament 2019-2022.

Egypt got 178 votes from the UN General Assembly, which is considered the highest rate of votes.

Also, Egyptian Ambassador Naela Gabr was endorsed to win the membership of the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Egypt’s candidate managed to win 143 countries’ votes in the elections that took place at the New York City meeting on countries ratifying the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

Additional reporting by Rehab Ismail and Dunya Hassanin