From a small blue tent pitched outside the UK’s Foreign Office, Sanaa al-Seif has been leading a one-woman protest in a bid to secure her brother’s release from an Egyptian jail as the Arab state prepares to host global leaders at the COP27 summit.

Like many Egyptians, she is hoping that the climate conference, which opens in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, will provide a rare chance to shine an international spotlight on the country’s dire human rights record.

“COP is an opportunity when eyes will be on Egypt — an opportunity to speak up and get some breathing room,” said Seif, surrounded by portraits of her incarcerated brother, Alaa Abdel Fattah. “It could save lives if the spotlight on the human rights conditions keeps escalating, and if governments put it in their engagement with Egyptian authorities.”