29 September 2006… Commenting on the allegations that have been circulated in a number of newspapers stating that the reports issued by the UN Human Rights Council criticized the human rights conditions in Egypt, Director of the Human Rights Department at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Counselor Ehab Gamal El Din, completely denied these allegations. He stated that the UN Human Rights Council is discussing a number of periodic reports issued by the Human Rights Rapporteurs during its procedural session, some of which referred to the ongoing dialogue with all countries concerning certain inquiries, including the ongoing dialogue with the Egyptian Government regarding the complaints they received from a number of citizens and non-governmental organizations, without criticizing or accusing the Egyptian Government. The issue is merely related to the periodic reports discussing the status of the rapporteurs’ dialogue with all countries. Counselor Gamal El Din asserted that stating that the Council shed light on the human rights violations in Egypt is completely incorrect. Observers of the Council’s sessions (which are published on the internet) will rapidly realize that none of the rapporteurs tackled the situation in Egypt in his statement before the Council, whereas there were few references about Egypt in the annexes of the complaint section related to all countries. The Egyptian mission to the United Nations in Geneva has clarified the circumstances surrounding most of the complaints, and is currently coordinating with the relevant Egyptian agencies to complete the responses regarding the remaining complaints. The Director of the Human Rights Department added that it is now easy for any non-governmental organization to review the procedures reports posted on the Human Rights Commission website, and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs encourages this within the frame of Egypt's transparency in handling Human Rights issues. He also affirmed that it remains unacceptable for an organization to misinterpret the content and meaning of those reports, indicating that all these faulty press reports depended on one statement issued by a small Egyptian non-governmental organization whose performance has always focused on attracting the greatest amount of foreign donations by propagating values that are alien to the Egyptian Society, and claiming that there are human rights violations in Egypt.