Egypt's government on Wednesday announced the establishment of a state-run human rights committee to respond to allegations of widespread abuses levelled against Cairo.
Rights groups and United Nations officials have accused Egyptian authorities under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of a campaign of repression to wipe out dissent.
The government has rejected the allegations, saying its priority is to reform the economy and fight "terrorism", and accusing its detractors of seeking to harm Egypt's interests.
The new rights committee is tasked with "dealing with and responding to claims being expressed against Egypt on human rights", the prime minister's office said in a statement.
Presided over by the foreign ministry, it will also "monitor Egypt's implementation of its international human rights commitments, and prepare periodical reports on this issue", the statement said.
The committee was established following directions from Sisi to "strengthen and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national level", it said.
Former military chief Sisi was elected leader in 2014, the year after he led the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi amid mass protests against the Islamist's rule.
Sisi in March won a second term with 97 percent at a vote in which he faced only one opponent, widely seen as a token challenger.
Hundreds of opposition figures, especially those linked to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and the January 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, are in jail or banned from leaving the country.
US-based Human Rights Watch alleged in September 2017 that "widespread and systematic torture by the security forces probably amounts to a crime against humanity".
Human Rights Watch's website is among more than 500 websites blocked in Egypt, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression in Cairo.
Egypt ranked 161 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2017 press freedom index.
