A report sponsored by the United Nations concluded that Arab regimes have balked at significant
reforms since October 2003 largely because of the U.S.-led war on terror.
The Arab Human Development Report described reform
measures announced by Arab regimes as "embryonic and fragmentary" which failed to
address the need to end government repression, Middle East Newsline reported.
The report, citing improvements in women's rights and education, said
the coalition's war against Al Qaida has reduced freedom in the Arab world.
Arab intellectuals complained of increased harassment and detention of Arabs
in the West, saying this has provided a pretext for Arab regimes to ignore
calls for reform.
The findings of the report, drafted by Arab non-government organizations
and intellectuals, have angered the United States, the UN Development
Program and Arab regimes. The report was held up for more than three months
amid demands for revisions.
"The fact that some Western countries have taken steps widely perceived
to be discriminatory and repressive, has weakened the position of those
reformers calling for Arab governments to change their course," the report,
the third in a series of four, said.
The report blamed Israeli and U.S. policy as contributing to the failure
of Arab reform. The report cited Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip and the U.S. military presence in Iraq as providing Arab governments
with an excuse to postpone democratization.
"Overall, there has been no significant easing of the human development
crisis in the Arab region," the report, released on Tuesday, said. "There is
a near-complete consensus that there is a serious failing in the Arab world,
and that this is located specifically in the political sphere."
"The very process of writing this AHDR has been a source of significant
public and, unfortunately, highly politicized and often inaccurate
speculation," then-UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown wrote in the
report. "Some of the views expressed by the authors are not shared by UNDP
or the UN."
"After dismantling the old state, the U.S.-led authorities made little
progress in building a new one," the report said. "Despite the optimistic
reports published by the occupation forces and the U.S. administration their
performance continued to be deficient."
Arab intellectuals cited the establishment of Israel as one of the major
roots of authoritarianism in the Middle East. Other elements cited by the
report were the conversion of Western colonies into Arab states and the oil
boom.
"This has pushed many people in the region to lose hope of obtaining
justice from global governance and could exacerbate a tendency toward
extremism," the report said.
The report warned of an increasing conflict between Arab reformists and
regimes. This could include both a political and social clash with unnamed
governments.
"There is a rational and understandable thirst among Arabs to be rid of
despots and to enjoy democratic governance," the report said.
