State of Human Rights in the Arab World Term Paper

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Human Rights in the Arab World

As stated by the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in the United Nations, Human rights has almost become one of the most important factors that decided the development of a country. To be able to promote economic growth and prosperity it is essential that a country controls its power of creativity and enterprise of its citizens, which would aid it to move into the global market in terms of trade, communication and investment systems.

It has been noticed that the most talented members of the society are usually not granted their human rights and hence the political, social, and cultural developments of the society are being not in order due to human rights being violated. This gets us to realize that we need to follow human rights development not only to protect a single individual but the entire society on the whole.2 Wrong use of human rights are very obviously seen and felt but very difficult to describe. Experts state cases regarding when soldiers attack civilians, not allowing ambulance service to the hurt and other instances like bombing. But in the Middle East when the same conflicts are involved with the political arena and when seeing the entire picture we get to realize that it is righteous anger that is just not allowed to surface. Factors like politics, history, and pressure and the inability to look beyond have all has affected this region to the extent possible. 3

1. "World Conference against Racism" Durban. 1999 Retrieved from http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0kef0 Accessed on 03/04/3004

2. Dalai Lama. "Human Rights - Perspectives: Universal Responsibility: Key to Human Survival." Asian Human Rights Commission- Human Rights Solidarity. 21 August, 2001 Retrieved from http://www.ahrchk.net/hrsolid/mainfile.php/1999vol09no03/829 / Accessed on 03/04/3004

3. Dick Gordon. "Human Rights in the Middle East." Retrieved from http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2002/04/20020424_a_main.asp Accessed on 03/04/3004

There are a several experts who feel that the same human rights that is applied in the west cannot be applied elsewhere because of the difference in culture and so on.4 There is also a very common argument that these currently used techniques and terminologies of Human rights are very modern and cannot be applied to the more mediocre regions in the Middle east. Even Europe was not able to topple absolutism stands as proof that it would indeed be very difficult for the Middle East. But still when noticing the current state of the Arab countries we can come to the conclusion that these countries are still far behind when it comes to human rights. The only aim for the ruling regime in these regions is to be able to fend for them. In this part of the world, individual persons are not paid attention at all, and ironically if this individual was a member of a minority group then he has a lot to suffer. 5

It is obvious from statistics available that human right is at its worst position in the Arab Countries. In 2000, when Amnesty International for Human Rights did an evaluation of the area they stated that, there were a lot of serious and extensive violations of human rights in that particular region during the past year, some of which included, large-scale executions, habitual use of torture, unfair ordeals etc. In the entire region of the Arab World and also in North Africa.6 The annual report that was then taken out by the State Department went on to state that most of the Arab nations were governed by dictatorial and oppressive rulers who did not grant their citizens freedom of any kind, be it freedom of speech, press or political expression. 7

4. "Human Rights and Modern Arab States." Thinking Clearly. Retrieved from http://www.habtoor.com/thinkingclearly/html/issue42.htm Issue 42 / September 2001 Accessed on 03/04/3004

5. "World Conference against Racism" Durban. 1999 Retrieved from http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0kef0 Accessed on 03/04/3004

6. "Human Rights and Modern Arab States." Thinking Clearly. Retrieved from http://www.habtoor.com/thinkingclearly/html/issue42.htm Issue 42 / September 2001 Accessed on 03/04/3004

7. Mitchell G. Bard. "Myths & Facts Online: Human Rights in Arab Countries." Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved from http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf16.html Accessed on 03/04/3004

According to a research by the Arab Human development report, from the UN Development program, conducted on the seven regions in the world they concluded that the Arab region had the lowest level of human rights existence, voice and accountability, and also civil liberties, political rights and independence of the media.8. Although Islam has a lot of internal cultures and is very politically diverse; at the same time is it very much different from the culture followed in the West. Islam actually stands for submission to the will of god, whereas Muslim means, "one who submits himself, is the main law that governs the life of all those who live in this region and whose political, social and economic life is governed on the basis of these rituals.

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In Islam both the state and the mosque are the same. Religion is considered as all encompassing and all the days of the week are adopted for prayer. 9

Lisa Anderson comments that there is very little chance or space for opposition in the Middle East. Here the ruler is supposedly only accountable to god and his responsibility is to see to it that the entire region and each individual stay in harmony. They do follow a tradition that allows individuals to disagree and also another that has an entire community who work for the welfare and reform movements. But people who are not Muslims are not allowed to express their opinions in their world. The fact that these Muslims like to consider themselves as distinct result that they do not like the interference of non-Muslims and consider them as not good for the society. Hence they are even meted out different laws as per the Islamic traditions. 10

8. Mitchell G. Bard. "Myths & Facts Online: Human Rights in Arab Countries." Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved from http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf16.html Accessed on 03/04/3004

9. Donna E. Arzt. "Religious Human Rights in Muslim States of the Middle East and North Africa" Retrieved from http://www.law.emory.edu/EILR/volumes/spring96/arzt.html Accessed on 03/04/3004

10. Donna E. Arzt. "Religious Human Rights in Muslim States of the Middle East and North Africa" Retrieved from http://www.law.emory.edu/EILR/volumes/spring96/arzt.html Accessed on 03/04/3004

While making an analysis of their laws we can understand that some of these laws are oppressive to a huge extent and are exerted most of the time by the rulers who rule these regimes. Most of these laws are implied by the rulers and not by the ordinary Muslim populace themselves. These rulers claim to have been elected but it is not so most of time. The worst form of their torture is seen in cases where rulers who are cruel and uncompromising assassinate individuals without proper trial. There have been incidents where the militants of Egypt and Algeria have killed religious leaders, minorities and other Muslim Civilians in the desire for power, but most of these individuals' keep the Shari'a as the base for their thinking. In all of Muslim History and especially in a lot of Muslim states, the maltreatment of supposed apostates, heretics and infidels has been seen to be cause mostly by political leaders who want to gain a benefit from hegemonic and other orthodox groups who use religious power to justify their doings. 11

Now let us have a brief look at how some of the states in the Gulf have responded to the issue of human rights. When a lot of countries in the Gulf region were asked to give their opinion on human rights, Iraq was first counted out as a dictatorial government. It was noticed that in Iraq the police who was led by Saddam Hussein, with the help of the Baath Party and his huge network of secret spy services governed the citizens. Being a Sunni Moslem himself, Saddam ordered the death of a lot of Shia Moslems and Kurdish tribes. He is even said to have used poisonous gas to kill the Kurdish villagers of a tribal village in Halabja; though none of this was even thought worth to be published in the Iranian press. 12

11. Donna E. Arzt. "Religious Human Rights in Muslim States of the Middle East and North Africa" Retrieved from http://www.law.emory.edu/EILR/volumes/spring96/arzt.html Accessed on 03/04/3004

12. "World Conference against Racism" Durban. 1999 Retrieved from http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0kef0 Accessed on 03/04/3004

In the northern region of Arabia, the women and children are caught and then sold as slaves. This can be considered as one of the worst sort of crimes against human rights and efforts need to be taken to make amendments to the current situation. In the region of southern Sudan, several villages have been bombed and women raped and men are tormented; all because of the fact that those individuals were actually Christians. Because of this, a lot of people of this region have had to live their villages and move out from there. Lawyers, human rights workers and students who have raised their voice against this inhumanity have been silenced very cruelly. 13….....

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