By Nada Rashwan
CAIRO
A group of NGOs and individuals have lodged a complaint with the African Union's human rights body against Egypt's closure of the Rafah border crossing with the embattled Gaza Strip, the target of a recent devastating Israeli military offensive.
"We are seeking expeditious means of getting parties talking about access of immediate relief to the defenseless people of the Gaza Strip," New-York based lawyer and activist Stanley Cohen, who represents Egyptian-American writer Mona Eltahawy as a plaintiff, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
The plaintiffs, including the U.K.-based International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights and Organization for Human Rights as well as the South Africa-based Palestine Solidarity Alliance, submitted their complaint Wednesday to the Gambia-based African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights.
They accuse Egypt of "creating, contributing to or intentionally compounding an enormous humanitarian crisis" in the embattled coastal enclave – home to some 1.8 million Palestinians.
According to the complaint, the border closure has prevented the transfer of much-needed relief supplies into the Palestinian territory.
The plaintiffs also accuse Egypt of "directly" violating article 20 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights by failing to carry out its obligation in assisting next-door Gazans during a severe humanitarian crisis.
"Egypt has an international, regional and national responsibility to open the Rafah crossing both under the humanitarian imperative and in terms of their obligations under the Charter of the African Union," the complaint reads in part.
It maintains that by keeping the crossing closed, Egypt was also denying Gazans the right to movement, asylum-seeking and living with dignity in violation of the African Charter and international laws.
Citing security concerns, Egypt kept the Rafah terminal mostly closed throughout 29 days of relentless Israeli attacks which have left at least 1886 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead and nearly 10,000 injured.
The near-total closure of the border has become the norm since last summer's ouster of Mohamed Morsi – Egypt's first freely elected president – by the army.
Egypt has accused the Gaza-based group Hamas, an ideological offshoot of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, of sponsoring deadly attacks on Egyptian security forces – accusations repeatedly denied by Hamas.
"As a member of the international community I am stunned that over 460 children have been killed, 40 percent of the Gaza Strip has been leveled to the ground and Egypt has turned its back on all of that because it's mad at Hamas," Cohen told AA.
"Holding two million people as pawns just to satisfy a petty political agenda is a war crime," he said.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
But the government recently announced that scores of seriously injured Palestinians have been allowed entry through the crossing to receive treatment in Egyptian hospitals and that several aid consignments have been allowed passage into Gaza through the crossing.
Urgency
The complainants are asking the African Commission to "urgently request" Egyptian authorities for "full, unfettered and immediate opening" of the Rafah crossing – Gaza's only outlet to the world outside Israel's control.
"We expect a response from the Commission by early next week," Cohen told AA.
According to him, the Egyptian government will have 15 days to respond to the commission with the steps it intends to take regarding the complaint.
"If Egypt ignores the complaint, the matter will be referred to the African Union which has the authority to suspend Egypt's A.U. membership," said the American lawyer.
The African Union's Peace and Security Council unanimously voted in June to reactive Egypt's membership which was suspended in the wake of Morsi's unconstitutional ouster.
Cohen said they are ready with alternative measures in case of no-response from Egypt.
"Egypt can ignore this complaint at its own peril," Cohen said, suggesting that they had taken their case to the African commission, instead of an international court, to "give Egypt the opportunity to do the right thing" by opening the Rafah border.
Cairo, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, is currently hosting indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks for a long-term truce agreement before its brokered 72-hour ceasefire expires on Friday morning.
However, Palestinian negotiator Qais Abdel-Karim said that the re-opening of Rafah crossing is not part of the ongoing talks since the matter is between Egypt and the Palestinians and that it would be discussed in due course.
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