Egypt says criticism by UN human rights commissioner is ‘politicised, unfounded’

Egypt said on Tuesday that comments made about Egypt by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights were “politicised” and “irrational”.Egypt’s permanent UN representative Amr Ramadan stated that Commissioner Zeid Raad Al-Hussein disregards the sovereignty of states by comparing countries and terrorist groups.During his speech on Sunday for the UN Human Rights’ 36th session, Al-Hussein, referring to a number of different countries, said that while terrorism cannot “totally obliterate our world,” governments will “break humanity” by choosing authoritarianism over democracy.On Egypt specifically, Al-Hussein said his office has “received reports of oppressive measures including increasing waves of arrests, arbitrary detention, blacklisting, travel bans, asset freezes, intimidation and other reprisals against human rights defenders, journalists, political dissidents and anyone affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group”.