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Human Rights Watch Executive Director Focuses on Arab Spring in World Report 2012
January 26, 2012
By: Rebecca Aaberg | Printer Friendly

Human Rights Watch released its 22nd annual World Report on January 22.  The 2012 edition of the report gives a broad overview of human rights abuses over the past year, including reports about each of the five major regions.  The report’s introduction, written by Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, calls for further support for the Arab Spring.  Roth writes that the West has failed to side with democracy in the region, citing the reluctance to push autocrats to reform: “In other regions, democracy spread, but in the Middle East and North Africa, the West seemed content to back an array of Arab autocrats, so long as they in turn supported Western interests. Elsewhere, governments were expected, at least in principle, to serve their people, but the West looked to the monarchs and strongmen of the Arab world to guarantee ‘stability,’ to keep the lid on popular demands. The world’s promotion of human rights had an Arab exception.”

Roth explains that while some states have supported new Arab Spring democracies, others have maintained relationships with autocracies in the region.  He describes the “Arab exception” of the West as resulting from the perception that under autocracies: 1) political Islam presents less of a threat, 2) strongmen help combat terrorism, 3) autocratic governments provide better stability for Israel, 4) oil is more accessible, and 5) migration to the European Union will be slowed.  Roth also criticizes the lukewarm responses of the Southern democracies in Brazil, India, and South Africa, who supported the Security Council resolution in Libya but failed to acknowledge the crisis in Syria.  Roth writes that some governments, such as those in China, North Korea, and Russia, among others, have demonstrated “outright hostility to the rebellions.”
 
Additionally, Roth acknowledges that intergovernmental organizations have played a role in restricting or supporting the acceptance of new democracies.  He calls the African Union “shamefully complacent” toward autocracies and says they have “acted like a dictator’s support club” throughout the Arab Spring.  Roth praises the Arab League, remaining aloof in the past, but involved in pressuring Syria to end political killings by working with the government to create an agreement to end the violence.  The organization then suspended Syria’s membership when the country did not comply with the plan, which Roth sees as moving away from the Arab League’s historic solidarity with rights-abusing regimes.  Roth calls for greater engagement by and support from the international community, particularly in the areas of freedom of expression, ending the use of torture, and impunity.

For the full version of Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2012, please see:
Human Rights Watch: World Report 2012

Sources:
Human Rights Watch – World Report 2012: A Landmark Victory for Domestic Workers

Human Rights Watch – World Report 2012: Strengthen Support for “Arab Spring”