Egypt's human rights record is facing scrutiny at the UN in Geneva today. Though the meeting is scheduled to last only three hours, this is the first time Egypt has been in the spotlight at the Human Rights Council under a process that reviews the performance of each member state in turn.

Human Rights Watch has submitted a report to the council. It calls for Egypt "to lift its longstanding abusive emergency regulations; to hold security forces accountable for serious human rights abuses such as arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention; and to end systematic torture and unfair trials before state security courts". 

Sixteen Egyptian organisations have also issued a joint reportwhich concludes by saying: "Despite some achievements made, in general systematic violations of human rights and a climate of impunity persist, as does the lack of political will to confront the situation."

There will be a live webcast of the proceedings from 9am to 12 noon (Geneva time), with a transcript here later. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights will be giving regular updates on Twitter.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 17 February 2010.