Egyptian human rights groups called on United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) member states to oppose Egypt’s accession to the Council in General Assembly elections scheduled for mid-October.
Nine organizations said in a joint statement Tuesday that as Egypt submits its candidacy, “compelling evidence has emerged that implicates the Egyptian government and its military in the commission of war crimes and potential crimes against humanity,” according to the statement.
Egypt is among four countries nominated for HRC membership for 2026–2028 in the African Group. Earlier this month, 23 human rights organizations urged member states to vote against Egypt, saying, “Electing the Egyptian government to the Human Rights Council will reward brutal repression and undermine the international human rights system.”
The nine groups said they sent a letter to UN member states and another to the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday, calling for “immediate action to open an investigation into the serious abuses and violations by security forces, including extrajudicial killings, in Sinai.”
Signatories include the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms; El Nadeem Center; Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies; Sinai Foundation for Human Rights; Committee for Justice; Refugees Platform in Egypt; the Egyptian Human Rights Forum; Egyptian Front for Human Rights; and EgyptWide for Human Rights.
“The evidence that has been gathered thus far is damning and should automatically disqualify Egypt from becoming a voting member of the UN Human Rights Council,” Jeremie Smith, director of the Geneva office at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said according to the statement.
A report published Monday by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights titled “Killed in Cold Blood,” includes “evidence analyzed by Forensic Architecture of mass graves containing human remains in Sinai.”
Forensic Architecture is a London-based, multidisciplinary research agency that investigates state and corporate violence using architectural techniques, digital modeling and open-source information. Founded in 2010 by architect Eyal Weizman, it combines architecture, human rights law, investigative journalism and art to produce compelling visual evidence for use in courts, human rights forums and cultural institutions.
The Sinai Foundation said it has documented “scattered incidents of extrajudicial killings of civilians in North Sinai, carried out by members of Egyptian law enforcement during the years of war with the armed ISIS-affiliate Wilayat Sinai, spanning 2013 to 2022.”
The foundation added that, in cooperation with Forensic Architecture, it presented “advanced analysis of a mass grave found by the foundation’s team,” saying the site “lies south of the city of Arish, in a low-lying area that locals used until 2010 to extract fertile soil, creating a large pit.”
The report noted that the analysis included exclusive photos, videos and physical observations gathered by foundation researchers during a field visit to the grave site.
Sinai Foundation said Forensic Architecture “studied and analyzed those visual materials, in addition to satellite imagery captured of the area over several years between 2005 and 2023, to track temporal changes and identify indicators of military activity, such as the appearance of military outposts, the presence of vehicles, tire tracks and ground disturbances within and around the site, correlating all of that with other available evidence.”
Ahmed Salem, the Sinai Foundation’s executive director, said in a statement that “the evidence of a mass grave and dozens of documented extrajudicial killings in Sinai will remain a bleeding wound that will not heal except through justice.”
