Shinning a Spotlight on Egypt’s New LGBT Crackdown
Speakers at an upcoming economic development conference in Egypt are being urged to use the platform to address the country’s recent human rights abuses, particularly its crackdown on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
The American LGBT rights group Human Rights Campaign has sent letters to 12 speakers scheduled for the Egypt Economic Development Conference who are representatives of American or multinational corporations, highlighting the recent arrests of LGBT people in the North African nation and urging them to use their summit discussions to engage participants in “important conversations about how a diverse and inclusive society could better attract investment to Egypt and the long-term benefits of such an approach.”
The Human Rights Campaign says many of the conference speakers it has reached out to belong to companies the organization already has a positive relationship with, or that the speakers themselves have a record of advocating for the rights of LGBT people. Among the conference participants HRC says it has sent letters to are Coca-Cola executive Ahmet Bozer, Microsoft's Ali Faramawy, Bob Dudley of BP, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Peter Orszag of Citigroup.
“What we see is a new world where there are these tremendous champions in leadership positions in places across the world,” says Ty Cobb, director of HRC Global. “So when a country backslides or takes measures to harm the LGBT community, HRC has expectations that those leaders continue to demonstrate their values."
Egyptian officials hope that the conference – which will be held this weekend in Sharm el-Sheikh and has been organized with partners from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – will help boost the country’s economy, which has struggled since 2011, the same year former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted.
Secretary of State John Kerry will also attend the conference while in Egypt this week. A State Department press release Monday outlining the trip said human rights would be part of Kerry’s broader agenda while visiting the country. It is unclear whether he plans to bring LGBT rights up – publicly or privately – at the economic summit.
"Secretary Kerry has the opportunity to reiterate the importance of protecting human rights and civil society when addressing those convened at the investment conference,” Cobb says. “The U.S. must make it clear that suppressing civil society and violating the human rights of LGBT people weakens Egypt and makes it a less attractive investment for international partners."
Cobb also points out that the State Department has named, for the first time, a special envoy for LGBT rights.
In recent months, dozens of LGBT people – particularly gay men and transgender women – have been the target of arrests and prosecution in Egypt. The country does not have a law specifically outlawing homosexuality, but authorities have used public debauchery and public indecency laws to target people believed to be gay or lesbian.
The arrests often are widely broadcast, suggesting a collusion with Egyptian media. And even when those targeted are not ultimately convicted, as was the case for 26 men in a December bathhouse raid, the public nature of their arrests means they will likely continue to face harassment.
There is much speculation as to what is driving the crackdown, says Amy Hawthorne, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Some say it's a top-down effort by current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to shore up political support and rebut allegations that his government is too secular.
“Others think it's elements inside the Interior Ministry or other security forces that really want to go after particular segments of society for other reasons,” she says.
Hawthorne notes the abuses extend much wider than the LGBT community, with Islamists and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, journalists, and political protesters also targeted. A report released by The Arabic Network For Human Rights Information estimates that 42,000 people were detained during the last year and a half for political reasons.
The role the global community can play in stemming such abuses is complicated. Where LGBT rights are concerned, anti-gay forces often paint homosexuality as a Western import, and thus foreign calls to end abuse can backfire.
“There’s almost a necessary pushback if you start addressing it so overtly, particularly in certain cultures,” says Stephen Hayes, president and CEO of The Corporate Council on Africa.
Nevertheless, the human rights community has stressed the issue as a priority to both its governmental and private sector allies. A number of groups raised their concerns ahead of a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit last August, given the track record of some of the countries participating when it came to LGBT rights and other abuses. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, also put pressure on the games' corporate sponsors to speak out in favor of LGBT rights in response to persecution of gays and lesbians under President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
How willing companies are to make LGBT rights an issue at the conference remains to be seen. A GE spokeswoman said the company was aware of the HRC letter’s existence, but the company had not yet received it. Amr Awadallah – founder and chief technology officer of Cloudera – received the letter, but because he is on a panel focusing on technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, he doesn't plan to discuss any other topics, a spokeswoman says.
When asked whether Dudley, the BP exec, had received the letter HRC said it sent him, a BP spokesman said in an email, “Our CEO's correspondence is private. However we as BP have a broad and supportive diversity and inclusion policy." The spokesman also noted that BP’s code of conduct supports diversity.
Likewise Citigroup, where Orszag – the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama – works, offered the following statement:
"Citi supports the protection and elevation of human rights around the world and is guided by fundamental principles of human rights, such as those in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (“ILO Declaration”). Citi is also a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact. Citi supports the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (“UN Guiding Principles”) including the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. Our support for these fundamental principles is reflected in our policies and actions towards our employees, suppliers, clients, communities and the countries where we do business.
Citi has approximately 200 million client accounts and 250,000 employees and has operations in more than 100 countries. As a global financial institution, Citi can impact human rights as an employer and can have an influence on human rights through our business relationships with clients and suppliers. We have established a set of policies and standards, described below, which reflect Citi’s mission to enable progress and our key principles of Common Purpose, Responsible Finance, Leadership and Ingenuity. Through these policies and standards and related due diligence, Citi seeks to implement our responsibility to respect human rights with regard to our employees, suppliers, clients, communities and host countries."
Some of the other businesses associated with targets of the HRC letter either did not respond to a request for comment or were unable to reach the executive in question.
“So far it seems like there are some businesses that are willing to invest there because they see the opportunities outweighing the risks,” Hawthorne says. “So the challenge based on human rights is to really make the case that all this repression is going to affect their ability to do business – because we know just a moral argument isn’t going to work.”
Egypt’s gay community is going deeper underground in fear after police arrest dozens of men at a Cairo bathhouse in a raid that was then featured on a lurid TV tabloid program stirring up public panic over “debauchery.” Egypt’s government is cracking down on gays, activists say, to promote its credentials as protectors of public morals
By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) — Just before midnight, the police navigated down the narrow alleys of an old downtown Cairo district and descended on a rundown bathhouse. They dragged out dozens of nearly naked men, who covered their faces as they struggled to hold up towels, and loaded them into police trucks.
There to film it all was an Egyptian television presenter, who claims she actually triggered the raid by tipping off police about alleged homosexual activity in the bathhouse. Days later, she aired what she boasted was an expose of "a den of mass perversion" spreading AIDS in Egypt.
The raid last week is the latest in a crackdown that gay rights activists say has made 2014 the worst year in a decade for Egypt's gay community. Homosexuals have been driven deeper underground, fearing not only arrest but also the public scare-mongering against the community drummed up in the media.
"I was devastated," a gay woman in Cairo's upscale district of Zamalek told The Associated Press, speaking of the raid and the images aired on "The Hidden," a lurid TV expose program. "Every time there is an incident, the community starts to hide underground ... while police go hunting," she said. Like others, she spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution.
"If this interview were a year ago, I wouldn't hide my identity because I love who I am," she added.
Activists say that by cracking down on gays, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi aims to boost its credentials as a protector of morals and religious values in a competition with its rival, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. El-Sissi led the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power last year, and since then security forces have all but crushed the Brotherhood, arresting more than 20,000 and killing hundreds as they put down Islamist protests. The government has also arrested secular opposition figures, effectively silencing any voice of dissent.
At the same time, pro-government media have been whipping up fears of threats to society from outsiders, whether foreign plotters, homosexuals, atheists or even devil worshippers.
Gays are taking precautionary measures. They avoid public places where they used to gather and stay away from Internet and dating applications, fearing police traps. Some contemplate leaving the country.
"We are an easy prey, the weakest link," one gay man in his 30s said. "The regime is at war with Islamists and we are small thing they can crush on their way and as part of their propaganda war."
He said he now avoids social gatherings and is careful when talking on the phone or when using dating mobiles apps like Grindr.
"I am even afraid at home with my partner," he said.
Around 150 men this year have been arrested or are on trial in connection with homosexuality, the highest number in more than a decade, said Scott Long, an American activist and researcher on gay rights. He said this is the worst year since 2001, when police raided a Nile boat restaurant and arrested 52 men accused of holding a gay party.
This year, police have made arrests nearly every month, sometimes in raids on houses, said Long, who tracks such incidents.
"There is consistent pattern of invading private life. Arresting people in their apartment, breaking down their doors, looking for evidence of 'deviance', what underwear you wear, looking for condoms in the drawers," Long said. "This is a strong message by the state power to pervade private life."
"It's a cynical, opportunistic kind of power play," said Long. Under Morsi, the ruling Islamists "didn't need to prove their moral credentials," he said, but for el-Sissi's government, "there is a need to show they are defending the moral principles of Egypt."
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