Arab report criticises limits of freedoms in the Maghreb

23/12/2008

The Egypt-based CIHRS releases its first report detailing the human rights situation in the Maghreb and the Arab world.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 23/12/08

[www.cihrs.org] The new report assesses human rights and democracy in 12 Arab countries, including Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) released its first annual report last week, entitled "Exporting Terrorism to Exporting Repression". The report stresses that "the situation of human rights in the Arab world has increasingly deteriorated in 2008. Further, the already limited public and political freedoms in most countries have been subject to increased encroachments."

The CIHRS, founded in 1993 to promote human rights and democracy, evaluated 12 Arab countries, including Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

The report lauded Morocco's latest elections, calling the process "the relative best". However, it also noted that the elections revealed citizens' lack of confidence in the ability of political parties or the Parliament to "address declining living conditions, since the king is the main decision-maker."

The study was pessimistic about the transfer of power in Tunisia and Algeria. It noted that Algeria's referendum on the Constitution opened the way for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to extend his mandate to a third term.

The CIHRS report stated that the Tunisian regime has deterred political figures from running in the October presidential elections, "thus more or less turning the elections into a referendum." Only three candidates have so far announced their candidacy to challenge President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has been in office since 1987.

The report also accused the Arab League of siding with what it called despotic regimes. "The League supported leaders of the military coup in their violation of the rights of Mauritanians, robbing them of their right to choose their rulers based on democratic criteria. … The Arab League has become a platform for attacking freedom of expression, especially in satellite and electronic media."

In a statement to Magharebia, Tunisian student Maha Ben Naser questioned the relevance of such reports. "Culprits are never held accountable, and certainly never get punished," she said. "We have never heard of any official in the Arab world being tried on grounds of human rights violations."

Conversely, student Hatem Weslati, who reviewed the report's synopsis online, noted, "This is indeed quite an important step. We have often treated criticism from international organisations as meddling in our own affairs. But when censure comes from within, we need to open our eyes to the human rights violations taking place around us."

It is noteworthy that during the current year, the Arab League-affiliated Union of Radio and Television released a Code of Conduct for Arab satellite channels. Many Arab media professionals saw it as a manacle to curb and monitor freedom of expression.

Many satellite channels, such as Al Jazeera, refused to comply.

The CIHRS report also identified several countries, such as Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as limiting religious freedom. The report frowned on many Arab regimes which failed to develop their societies, and instead forged alliances with the religious non-resistant Salafi movements.

"That, in turn, has resulted in enhancing religious extremism, and paves the way for further decline in human rights," the report concludes.