Egypt: Congress’ Push for Democracy and Human Rights

In the Wall Street Journal today, Jay Solomon reports on pressure directed at the Obama administration regarding human rights and political freedoms in Egypt. It is not clear whether President Barack Obama plans to bring up issues about next year’s elections in Egypt during President Hosni Mubarak‘s meeting with Obama today. The Senate is reportedly considering a non-binding resolution that encourages additional dialogue between Washington and Cairo about democracy and human rights issues, and calls for that dialogue to be a formal part of bilateral U.S.-Egypt relations. More specifically, the resolution recommends that the U.S. pressure Egyptian leaders to end the country’s decades-old emergency law.

In an op-ed for Al-Ahram recently, Mohamed Abdel-Baky expressed skepticism at Congress’ resolutions on the political situation in Egypt, calling the most recent proposal the “same old story.” He notes that although a formal statement by Congress can carry moral force and places additional pressure on the State Department in its relations with the Egyptian government, the resolutions use “soft language” and rarely make large demands.