NEW YORK — Human rights abuses in Arab countries increased throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2009, according to the annual report of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, released earlier this week.

Egypt and Syria were singled out as leading offenders in the torture report.     AFP

Titled “Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform,” the report reviews “deteriorating” human rights developments this year in 12 Arab countries — Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen.
In a separate chapter, the report addresses what it calls the “limited progress” made to advance women’s rights and gender equality.

It says that Arab governments “use the issue of women’s rights to burnish their image before the international community while simultaneously evading democratic and human rights reform measures required to ensure dignity and equality for all of their citizens.”

The report says that while Iraq is still the largest arena of violence and civilian deaths, “the country witnessed a relative improvement in some areas, though these gains remain fragile.”

It added that, “The death toll has dropped and threats against journalists are less frequent. In addition, some of the major warring factions have indicated they are prepared to renounce violence and engage in the political process.”

In Egypt, where the institute is based and the state of emergency is approaching the end of its third decade, the report charges that “the broad immunity given to the security apparatus has resulted in the killing of dozens of undocumented migrants, the use of lethal force in the pursuit of criminal suspects, and routine torture.”

The emergency law was applied broadly to repress freedom of expression, it said, including detaining or abducting bloggers.

In its blatant contempt for justice, the report says, the Sudanese regime is “the exemplar for impunity and the lack of accountability.”

The Bashir regime “is hunting down anyone in the country who openly rejects impunity for war crimes, imprisoning and torturing them and shutting down rights organizations.” Meanwhile, “The government’s policy of collective punishment against the population of Darfur continues.”

Algeria, Bahrain, Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon and Tunisia were also singled out for undemocratic, repressive practices and corruption.

Syria, entering its 47th year of emergency law, continues to be distinguished by “its readiness to destroy all manner of political opposition, even the most limited manifestations of independent expression,” the report says.

It notes that the Kurdish minority “was kept in check by institutionalized discrimination, and human rights defenders were targets for successive attacks.” The report says the president of the Sawasiyah human rights organization was arrested and tried, and his attorney, the former chair of the Syrian Human Rights Association, was referred to a military tribunal.

“The offices of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression were shut down, and Syrian prisons still hold dozens of prisoners of conscience and democracy advocates,” the report charges.

In Saudi Arabia, the report notes that the monarch’s speeches urging religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue abroad have not been applied inside the Kingdom, where “the religious police continue to clamp down on personal freedom.”

The organization says “repression of religious freedoms is endemic, and the Shi’a minority continues to face systematic discrimination.”

Counterterrorism policies were used to justify long-term arbitrary detention, and political activists advocating reform were tortured. These policies also undermined judicial standards, as witnessed by the prosecution of hundreds of people in semi-secret trials over the last year, the report says.

In tandem with these abuses and “lack of accountability for such crimes” within Arab countries, the report notes that “various Arab governments and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference have been working in concert within U.N. institutions to undermine international mechanisms and standards for the protection of human rights.

“On this level, Arab governments have sought to undercut provisions that bring governments to account or seriously assess and monitor human rights. This is most clearly illustrated by the broad attack on independent U.N. human rights experts and NGOs working within the UN, as well as attempts to legalize international restrictions on freedom of expression through the pretext of prohibiting ‘defamation of religions’,” the report says.

The report also condemns what it terms “the grave and ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, particularly the collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through the ongoing blockade and the brutal invasion of Gaza at the beginning of 2009 which resulted in the killing of more than 1,400 Palestinians, 83 percent of them civilians not taking part in hostilities.”

It notes that “The plight of the Palestinian people has been exacerbated by the Fatah-Hamas conflict, which has turned universal rights and liberties into favors granted on the basis of political affiliation.”

“Both parties have committed grave abuses against their opponents, including arbitrary detention, lethal torture, and extrajudicial killings,” it says.

-IPS