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Monday, May 25, 2009

Arab human rights groups see gains in moderate states, decline elsewhere

ABU DHABI Ñ A leading Arab group said human rights in the Arab world have been declining steadily.   

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies reported that most Arab countries were severely violating human rights and preventing freedom of expression and assembly.

"Attacks on the limited public and political liberties that exist have escalated in most countries in the region," the institute said in a report.

The report said several countries were improving their human rights records. The institute cited Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, said to have introduced measures to enhance democracy.

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The report, "State of Human Rights in the Arab Region in 2008," cited Egypt and Lebanon. These two countries, which signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, were said to have undergone a serious decline in human rights.

"Yet these same mechanisms are currently being greatly undermined and slowly dismantled by the actions of Arab states," the report said.

Egyptian human rights organizations have sought to support democracy throughout North Africa. On May 17, the organizations issued a statement in solidarity with three Moroccan newspapers sued by the Libyan embassy in Rabat.

The newspapers, Maghreb News, First Newspaper and The Evening, were accused of defaming Libyan leader Moammar Khaddafy by calling Libya and other North African states undemocratic. If convicted, the editors of these newspapers could face two years in jail.

"Col. Khaddafy, who has repeatedly made public rhetorical statements about the alleged reforms in recent years, forgot or pretended to have forgotten that there shall be no democracy without freedom of expression, and that suppression of freedom of expression is a feature of all the governments of North Africa, especially Libya and Tunisia," the Egyptian organizations said.



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