Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Donate Today
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube Envelope
Search
Close this search box.
  • English
  • العربية
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
      • China
      • Yemen: Toward Sustainable Peace and Democracy
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Menu
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
      • China
      • Yemen: Toward Sustainable Peace and Democracy
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Donate

Congress Should Cut Ties with Lobbyist Ed Royce, Rights Groups say

February 11, 2022
in Advocacy, DAWN, Joint Letters, Lobbyists
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

DAWN organized a coalition letter to Congress to raise concerns about lobbyists who continue to advocate on behalf of abusive governments.

The full text of the letter can be read below.

Dear Member of Congress,

We write to you as a coalition of organizations dedicated to advancing human rights and ethical business practices. In light of your co-sponsorship of HR1/S1, "For the People Act of 2021," we are writing to raise concerns about lobbyists who continue to advocate on behalf of abusive governments.Pending the passage of this bill, we write to request that you publicly pledge not to communicate with lobbyists for systematically abusive governments in the Middle East and North Africa. 

We are currently focusing on the work of former congressman Ed Royce of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (BHFS), who represents the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia and hoping to ensure that members of Congress will agree not to meet with him until his firm ends its representation of these governments. You can read a full profile detailing Ed Royce's work with these two governments by visiting the Lobbyist Hall of Shame website here.

Although H.R.1/S.1 has stalled in Congress, we urge you to support its provisions especially those pertaining to barring lobbying for foreign governments that have committed (GVHRs). Meanwhile, we urge you to refrain from meeting with any lobbyists who represent abusive governments and to create a public list of these governments and include Egypt and Saudi Arabia on it.

Ed Royce currently works as a Policy Director for BHFS. Royce wielded his political influence to schedule briefings and calls for the Egyptian Ministry and for the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Motaz Zahran to meet with members of congress and their staffs. Securing this access to lawmakers is crucial to the Egyptian government's efforts to whitewash its abusive tactics and obscure Egypt's ongoing human rights crisis. This high-level access is also crucial to the Saudi government, and Royce added the firm's Saudi file to his portfolio in August 2021. Brownstein has represented the Saudi government since 2016, including a $1.8 million payment in 2020, the year that Royce agreed to join the firm. Royce will help facilitate meetings with federal government officials on behalf of the Saudi government.

DAWN has developed a set of recommendations to lobbying firms urging them to regulate their own conduct. This includes calling on lobbyists to conduct a due diligence review examining the human rights and humanitarian law record of a government, government agency, or government official they seek to represent and to determine the extent to which their representation would contribute to, or benefit from, any of their human rights or humanitarian law abuses, including by misrepresenting or omitting information to the public or U.S. government officials and representatives about their human rights record. We urge lobbyists to make such reviews public. Most significantly, wecall on lobbyists to pledge to decline representing foreign governments, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where there is credible information implicating them in the commission of gross violations of human rights or international humanitarian law. 

DAWN has also developed recommendations to members of Congress. These include:

  • Urging members of Congress to refrain from meeting with lobbyists working on behalf of governments, agencies, or officials where there is credible information, documented by human rights organizations or by the State Department's Annual Human Rights Report, implicating them in gross violations of human rights or international humanitarian law. 
  • Improve lobbying transparency regulations: Congress should integrate two separate sets of legal transparency requirements: the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

As you are probably aware, Under President Sisi, Egypt's poor human rights record has become a human rights crisis. The State Department's 2020 Country Report on Human Rights in Egypt notes numerous gross violations of human rights including unlawful and arbitrary killings, extrajudicial killings by government agents, forced disappearances, torture, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The Sisi government systematically attacks journalists and seeks to eliminate all dissent by violently suppressing freedom of speech, information, and assembly. There are at least 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt, thousands of which the government holds indefinitely without due process. Prison conditions are reprehensible, torture in prison is common, and prison officials often purposefully withhold medical care from sick prisoners. The United States contributes to these abuses by providing the Egyptian government $1.3 billion of military aid and extensive political support each year. 

Saudi Arabia's human rights record is among the worst in the word for democratic representation, as Saudi citizens have virtually no voice in the Kingdom's monarchial rule. Under Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's human rights is even worse than before. Human rights abuses are pervasive and political dissent is not tolerated. Saudi citizens endure extensive surveillance and even perceived political opponents are arrested, and often held incommunicado indefinitely and tortured.

You can read more about Egypt and Saudi Arabia's abuses and how Ed Royce's role as their lobbyist in his newly published profile on the Lobbyist Hall of Shame.

We urge your office to sever any ties with Ed Royce, and publicly pledge not to meet with him or other lobbyists who represent abusive governments like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Over 5,000 US citizens and residents have signed a petition circulated only three days ago calling on BHFS to end their contract with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Egypt and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Saudi Arabia. We expect the momentum to grow in the upcoming weeks, and we urge you to amplify our calls today. 

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need any additional information. 

Best,

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
ALQST for Human Rights
BanKillerDrones.org
CODEPINK
Egyptians Abroad for Democracy
Freedom Forward
Libyan American Alliance
MENA Rights Group
The Quincy Institute
RootsAction.org
World BEYOND War

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 22: Storm clouds gather near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday afternoon September 22, 2021.

Source: Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Tags: CongressEd Roycejoint letterLobbyistlobbyist gallerylobbyist hall of shamelobbyistssign-on letter
Previous Post

'A New International of Authoritarianism': An Interview With Iran Scholar Abbas Milani

Next Post

Egypt: Tarek Marzouk Responsible for Systematic and Widespread Torture, Inhumane Conditions in Egyptian Prisons

Related Posts

Los Angeles, CA - May 16:  Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park (District 11), speaks during a meeting where the Council deadlocked on a proposal, 7-7, to ask City Planning Director Vince Bertoni to consider rescinding a general plan amendment initiation for the Bulgari Resort Los Angeles, a planned 58-room hotel that would rise in Benedict Canyon, at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, CA, Tuesday, May 16, 2023. Developer Gary Safady's proposal will continue in the process, with an environmental impact report being completed.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Advocacy

Los Angeles City Council Votes to Rename Street Outside Saudi Consulate as "Jamal Khashoggi Way"

(Washington, D.C., May 26, 2023) — The Los Angeles City Council has voted to pass Council Resolution 23-0349, a...

DAWN
May 26, 2023
Attendees walk past the logo of US multinational technology company Microsoft. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP) (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)
Advocacy

Microsoft Should Suspend Data Center Plans in Saudi Arabia, Groups Say

Enormous risk to privacy and human rights if Microsoft stores cloud data center in Saudi Arabia The full text...

DAWN
May 24, 2023
Jordan Prince Hamzah bin al Hussein delivers his speech during the plenary session at the Bella Center in Copenhagen on December 17, 2009 on the 11th day of the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference.  AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK (Photo credit should read ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)
DAWN

Jordan: Release Prince Hamzah and his Family from Arbitrary Imprisonment

(Washington D.C., May 23, 2023): Jordanian authorities immediately should act to secure the release of Prince Hamzah bin Al...

DAWN
May 23, 2023
Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency
Advocacy

International Academics Call on Leaders to Support Democracy in Tunisia After Jailing of Opposition Leader

Dozens of academics sign open letter calling on the Tunisian authorities to release the head of the Ennahda Movement,...

DAWN
May 19, 2023
Next Post

Egypt: Tarek Marzouk Responsible for Systematic and Widespread Torture, Inhumane Conditions in Egyptian Prisons

Los Angeles, CA - May 16:  Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park (District 11), speaks during a meeting where the Council deadlocked on a proposal, 7-7, to ask City Planning Director Vince Bertoni to consider rescinding a general plan amendment initiation for the Bulgari Resort Los Angeles, a planned 58-room hotel that would rise in Benedict Canyon, at City Hall in downtown Los Angeles, CA, Tuesday, May 16, 2023. Developer Gary Safady's proposal will continue in the process, with an environmental impact report being completed.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Los Angeles City Council Votes to Rename Street Outside Saudi Consulate as "Jamal Khashoggi Way"

May 26, 2023

Reckoning With the Nakba That Never Ended

May 25, 2023
Attendees walk past the logo of US multinational technology company Microsoft. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP) (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)

Microsoft Should Suspend Data Center Plans in Saudi Arabia, Groups Say

May 24, 2023

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Aid Conditionality
  • Anonymous Interviews
  • Anonymous Interviews Egypt
  • Anonymous Interviews Saudi Arabia
  • Anonymous Interviews UAE
  • Cases
  • Cases Egypt
  • Cases Saudi Arabia
  • Cases UAE
  • China's Uyghur Repression
  • Countries
  • Culprits
  • Culprits Egypt
  • Culprits Israel
  • Culprits Saudi Arabia
  • Culprits UAE
  • DAWN
  • Dawn's Advocacy
  • Democracy In Exile
  • Editor's Pick
  • Egypt
  • Feature
  • Fellows
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights Go to War
  • International Actors
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Joint Letters
  • Lobbyists
  • Lobbyists Israel Palestine
  • Palestine
  • Political prisoners
  • Press Release Egypt
  • Press Release Israel-Palestine
  • Press Release Saudi Arabia
  • Press Release UAE
  • Press Releases
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • US – Egypt
  • US – Saudi Arabia
  • US – UAE
  • USA
  • Yemen Conference

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Donate Today

About Us

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Support Us

Donate Now

Newsletter

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© DAWN All rights reserved. | Website Design by KRS Creative.

DONATE TODAY