The EU’s Approach to Human Rights in Egypt: Views from Civil Society

Abstract

Before the Arab uprisings, the EU wishfully pinned its hope on a spill-over effect from trade to political reform as well as onto actors’ socialization. In Egypt, this strategy fell prey to Mubarak’s ‘carrot-and-stick’ approach to the nascent NGO sector and its adjusted policy discourse that resonated with Brussels. Drawing upon Mubarak’s mistakes, the post-Revolution regime morphed into an overtly repressive apparatus designed to ‘kill’ civil society and prevent a new 25 January to occur. In this space, within which the EU enters as an external actor, our findings indicate that even if its presence is perceived in a positive light in many instances, actors highlight what they view as an EU shift toward more security-oriented practices, underpinned only by Cairo rulers’ efforts to reframe cooperation around a ‘fight-against-terrorism’ agenda that continues to sway from the realization of human rights-particularly of gender justice. Egypt, Human Rights, European Union, European Union, Egypt, Human Rights, Civil Society, Democracy, Authoritianism