Research
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Yasmine Farouk, Nathan J. Brown, Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen, …
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Source: Getty
In The Media
U.S. Senate Resolution Urges Political Change in Egypt
A recent U.S. Senate resolution that addresses human rights and civil liberties in Egypt is meant to pressure the regime ahead of upcoming elections, but it is symbolic and not binding.
Published on Jul 29, 2010
Source: VOA News
It also calls on the White House to stress democratic reform in its dealings with Egypt and to support Egyptian human rights and reform groups.
Dr. Michele Dunne is a senior associate at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and editor of the online journal, the Arab Reform Bulletin. She told us the resolution is symbolic and not binding.
Dunne: "The timing of the resolution is related to the upcoming elections in Egypt. Egypt is going to have important elections for the lower house of Parliament in November and a Presidential election next year.
I think there is a sense in the Congress that the United States has to pay more attention to this.
The Obama administration wanted to kind of reset the relationship with Egypt and improve relations with the government, which it did—and yet somehow, concerns about human rights and democracy kind of got lost, for awhile, at least.
Now, I think, there are a number of things that have been happening in Egypt. There are the upcoming elections. The government recently renewed this state of emergency under which the country has been living for more than thirty years. And there is also this human rights case recently, where a young man was beaten to death by the police. There’s a lot going on in Egypt, and I think we see now the Hill—and also the Administration starting to take more of an interest."
Hilleary: What good can a Senate resolution do? What kind of a signal does it send and where does it go from here?
Dunne: "Right. I mean, this resolution is really just an expression of interest on the part of the Senate in conditions in Egypt.
It shows that members of the Senate are aware of what’s going on in Egypt and consider that human rights and democracy have to be part of the U.S. relationship and dialogue with Egypt. And it urges the Egyptian government to take certain steps. And it also urges the administration—the president and the secretary of state—to sort of put these issues a little higher on the U.S. agenda with Egypt.
But there’s nothing binding about it. There are no punishments or threats or anything like that in the Resolution."
Hilleary: What has been the reception in Egypt?
Dunne: "It has appeared in the Egyptian press over the last couple of days. There have been some articles about it. So far, it’s pretty much sort of straight-forward reporting of this Senate Resolution, and I think we’ll see the reaction if the Resolution passes."
About the Author
Michele Dunne
Former Nonresident Scholar, Middle East Program
Michele Dunne was a nonresident scholar in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on political and economic change in Arab countries, particularly Egypt, as well as U.S. policy in the Middle East.
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Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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