Activists take Egypt to AU rights body over Rafah crossing

They want "full, unfettered and immediate opening" of the Rafah crossing, Gaza's only outlet to the world outside Israel's control...

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..........................http://www.aa.com.tr/en/headline/370273--activists-take-egypt-to-au-rights-body-over-rafah-crossing
7/8/14
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Related:

• Egypt opens border crossing with Gaza Strip to receive injured Palestinians (the Rafah border crossing) 

• Tehran urges Egypt to open Rafah for Gaza humanitarian aid....

• Egypt opens Rafah border crossing for Gaza wounded