Human rights case overshadows start of COP27 climate change summit in Egypt Transcript

Global leaders are meeting at a pivotal conference in Egypt to discuss climate change, but human rights are overshadowing the beginning of the so-called COP27 Summit in the Red Sea Resort City of Sharm El-Sheikh.

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The family of one of Egypt’s most prominent political prisoners says that he could die in detention within days, highlighting the Egyptian government’s widespread crackdown on its critics. Here’s Nick Schifrin.

No one better symbolizes Egypt’s lost hope in its regime’s repression than Alaa Abdel Fattah. He’s an activist and software developer who helped drive the 2011 revolution, but in the last decade, he spent more than nine years in prison.

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Last December, he was sentenced to five years, for what the regime called false news, highlighting human rights abuses. And now, after eating only a hundred calories a day for seven months, he is refusing to drink even water.

It feels like he can’t control his destiny, that someone has decided that’s his destiny, that he will die in prison. So the only thing he can really control is the timeline. And he’s, of course, choosing the timing that will be the most embarrassing to the Egyptian authorities.

Sanaa Seif, is Alaa’s youngest sister, and herself a prominent human rights activist, who’s been jailed three times in the last decade. Overnight, she arrived at the site of COP27 to pressure international leaders to get her brother released.

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Are you worried he could die?

I’m really worried he could die. I respect his decision and I think it’s the right decision. I understand where he’s coming from. And I agree that this is not a life worth living, neither for him or for us, really, his family outside. But as a sister, I cannot give up hope. I still have hope.

No Egyptian family has fought for justice more tirelessly than the Seifs. Their late father, Ahmed, was the country’s leading human rights lawyer. Middle sister Mona is currently campaigning for Alaa in London. Their mother, Leila, has protested against six governments over 42 years. She was born in London, and last year Alaa was granted British citizenship.

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New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is attending the climate conference and today met Sisi. A British official says in a statement, “Sunak raised Alaa’s plight, expressing his serious concerns about this case and calling for Alaa’s release.”

In the past, it has always been [inaudible 00:02:34]…

State Department spokesman Ned Price, today, didn’t go that far.

… We’ve made the point to the Egyptians that improvements, when it comes to issues of human rights, only serve to strengthen the basis of the bilateral relationship.

Is the British government, is the West, doing enough to try and help your brother?

No. I’m worried that they have realized the urgency too late. I can see that they feel the heat, but they’re still very timid when it comes to raising human rights concerns.

Human rights organizations accuse Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of imprisoning more than 60,000 Egyptians across society.

I believe that we should all concentrate on the task at hand [inaudible 00:03:17]…

Today, at the conference, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry suggested to CNBC, there would be no diplomacy to release Alaa.

And it is dealt with within the penal system, within the rules and regulations.

We’re suffocating. There is no breathing room here. The people who are going to create action, and to create pressure on our policymakers and our oil companies, to operate better towards the climate, are the same people who are now languishing in Egyptian prison.

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In order to get any action towards the planet, you need to have space for people to speak up. You need to have civic space, and that does not exist in Egypt.

World leaders are trying to avoid the death of the planet, but if nothing is done, their work could be overshadowed by the death of one man. For the PBS News Hour, I’m Nick Schifrin.