Right. But there are no good people in these positions:
Abdelatty is not only foreign minister but also chairs Egypt’s Supreme Standing Committee for Human Rights. At Egypt’s UN human-rights review in January 2025, he portrayed Egypt as having made major progress and did not acknowledge abuses. Human Rights Watch contrasted this with documented arbitrary detention of peaceful critics, torture, enforced disappearance, serious prison abuses and unfair mass trials and executions. Calling this record major progress while omitting those abuses can reasonably be characterized as whitewashing the government’s conduct.
There is also a longer history. When Abdelatty was Foreign Ministry spokesman in 2013–2015, during the crackdown after Mohamed Morsi’s removal, he publicly denied that authorities were conducting a political crackdown, saying there were “no exceptional measures” against political groups. He also defended Egypt against international criticism over the prosecution of Al Jazeera journalists and rejected European criticism of those trials. Those statements came during a period when journalists, opposition figures and protesters were being arrested in large numbers.
Right. But there are no good people in these positions:
Abdelatty is not only foreign minister but also chairs Egypt’s Supreme Standing Committee for Human Rights. At Egypt’s UN human-rights review in January 2025, he portrayed Egypt as having made major progress and did not acknowledge abuses. Human Rights Watch contrasted this with documented arbitrary detention of peaceful critics, torture, enforced disappearance, serious prison abuses and unfair mass trials and executions. Calling this record major progress while omitting those abuses can reasonably be characterized as whitewashing the government’s conduct.
There is also a longer history. When Abdelatty was Foreign Ministry spokesman in 2013–2015, during the crackdown after Mohamed Morsi’s removal, he publicly denied that authorities were conducting a political crackdown, saying there were “no exceptional measures” against political groups. He also defended Egypt against international criticism over the prosecution of Al Jazeera journalists and rejected European criticism of those trials. Those statements came during a period when journalists, opposition figures and protesters were being arrested in large numbers.
And what about Denmark’s PM?