19 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to a statement issued by a number of countries at the UN Human Rights Council criticising Cairo's human rights records by issuing a counter-statement criticising what it alleges to be human rights violations in the countries that issued the statement.
The ministry lamented what it described as the unjustifiable "politicisation" of human rights, adding that some countries use human rights as a pretext to cover up their own, continued violations of human rights.
The statement also condemned what it described as "relative" human rights in countries that criticised its human rights situation, noting that in the United States, Britain, Canada and other Western countries, people of colour are treated like "second-class citizens".
Countries like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Norway are more respectful of human rights, the foreign ministry said, but once refugees arrive in those countries, their belongings are confiscated and Western politicians take pride in posting racist tweets against them and against Africans and Muslims, it added.
On 12 March, a number of Western countries, including the United States, issued a statement criticizing the human rights situation in Egypt.
