Members of the Egyptian community in Switzerland gathered in a rally in front of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday to support the Egyptian delegation at the UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) 34th session, which is undertaking the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the human rights record of Egypt and two other countries.

At a conference held after the rally, Farid Mohamed Moussa, the vice president of the Egyptian community in Geneva, said that the community aimed to express its solidarity with Egyptians at home in their fight against terrorism.

"We also carry a message to the members and delegations of countries participating in the UNHRC session that there is popular support for the Egyptian government," Moussa added.

He rejected recent attempts to cast doubt on the state's efforts to achieve stability, noting that the recent protests against the Egyptian government in Geneva, or Europe, were organised and funded by the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group.

The Egyptian Community during the conference

"We came to support the Egyptian state and to show our rejection of the lies circulated recently in a number of media platforms on the situation of human rights in Egypt," said Mohamed Al-Battout, a member of the Secretariat-General of the Egyptian Communities in Europe and Geneva.

Other participants in the meeting said Egypt was living its golden age under the current Egyptian constitution which guaranteed the rights and freedoms of all Egyptians. They stressed that human rights institutions and associations that adopted the speech of the Brotherhood group told lies and twisted facts.

Meanwhile, the attempt of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood to rally in front of UN headquarters in Geneva failed as only ten individuals, mostly non-Egyptians, responded to their call. 

The gathering lasted only 30 minutes although it was supposed to start from 10 am to 3 pm.