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Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa Task Force 2015 University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies

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Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa Task Force 2015 University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA TASK FORCE 2015 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON JACKSON SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 1 TASKFORCE HUMAN RIGHTS MEMBERS __________________ Adams, Robert IN THE MIDDLE Ames, Erica Bots, Blanka EAST AND Capobianco, Lauren Chrisman, Daniel NORTH AFRICA Hooper, Sasha TASK FORCE 2015 Krebsbach, Kristine UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Land, Michael JACKSON SCHOOL OF Lezzi, Ottavia INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Morgen, Jacob TASK FORCE ADVISOR Denis Bašić, Ph.D. Song, Brandon Terebey, Skye Task Force Evaluator Joe Stork, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch, Middle East and North Africa Division Coordinator Tiffany Butler Editor Auric Kaur 2 3 To our Professor, Denis Bašić who has taught us, “Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.” ― Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear The members of this Task Force wish to thank Denis Bašić for challenging our own thoughts and advising us to think critically about the deeply embed reasons that are rooted in these human rights concerns. 4 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER PAGE .................................................................................................................... 0 TASKFORCE LIST.............................................................................................................. 2 DEDICATION ..................................................................................................................... 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................... 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................ 8 – 11 COUNTRY CHAPTERS WESTERN SAHARA ............................................................................................. 12 – 22 MOROCCO ............................................................................................................. 23 – 32 ALGERIA ................................................................................................................ 33 – 45 TUNISIA .................................................................................................................. 46 – 55 LIBYA ...................................................................................................................... 56 – 65 EGYPT ..................................................................................................................... 66 – 77 ISRAEL/PALESTINE ............................................................................................ 78 – 90 JORDAN .................................................................................................................. 91 – 98 LEBANON ............................................................................................................. 99 – 109 TURKEY ............................................................................................................. 110 – 118 SYRIA .................................................................................................................. 119 – 135 IRAQ .................................................................................................................... 136 – 147 IRAN .................................................................................................................... 148 – 158 SAUDI ARABIA ................................................................................................. 159 – 168 BAHRAIN ............................................................................................................ 169 – 179 KUWAIT ............................................................................................................. 180 – 188 QATAR ................................................................................................................ 189 – 199 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ............................................................................ 200 – 211 OMAN .................................................................................................................. 212 – 219 YEMEN ................................................................................................................ 220 – 228 CONCLUDING REMARKS ................................................................................... 229 – 232 ENDNOTES ........................................................................................................... 233 – 263 6 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Tiffany Butler Ever since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, there have been complaints that the Declaration is not culturally sensitive. In 1981, a group of Islamic scholars proposed the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, and then in 1990, the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam was adopted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is an intergovernmental body made up of fifty-seven member states.1 In 2004, The Arab League adopted the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which defends the right of national self-determination and the “sovereignty of the law and its contribution to the protection of universal and interrelated human rights.”2 In 2008, the OIC established its Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) with the goal of promoting human rights in member states and upholding the fundamental freedoms for all people without distinction as to race, sex, or religion.3 Nevertheless, many still question the compatibility between the Islamic and Western visions of human rights. In June of 2011, the decision making arm of the OIC adopted the Statute of the IPHRC.4 There is a balance inherent in the Statute that affects the nature of the OIC human rights documents in two ways: First, in the framework, there is a shift away from the universal exclusivity of Shari’a towards the so-called “appreciation doctrine,” which allows for a context- sensitive application of international human rights standards.5 In other words, a “margin of appreciation” gives room within the many Islamic states to apply Shari’a according to the different interpretations of different Islamic denominations. Second, the paramount task of the interpretation of Islamic law was given to the IPHRC. The previous provisions were based on the views of a great many Islamic scholars who point out that Shari’a is not technically a divine law, as if spoken directly from God to the Prophet Muhammad, but that it is rather drawn from the Qur’an and Sunna by jurists who constructed the law from those sources.6 Therefore, “The constructionist feature of sharia thus empowers the Commission to seek interpretations of Islamic law which promote human rights and uphold the existing international obligations of the OIC Member States.”7 It is believed that through the application of the Statute, human rights violations can be combated in contextual ways within each Islamic state. This will not be a short, nor an easy, road. 8 Even though this report focuses on human rights violations in the MENA region, it is important to understand that human rights concerns are not confined to this region. Human rights violations occur around the world daily. Therefore, any discussion about human rights in the MENA region should bring awareness to human rights violations in our own country, and even in our own cities. Therefore, this report should encourage introspection and recommendations for greater human rights within any country that suffers from similar violations found in this report within their own borders. For example, when we speak about the violation of “Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile and Right to a Fair Public Hearing” in Lebanon, this should create an opportunity of self-evaluation for every government that has been doing the same, and for the government to rehabilitate its own practices. The United States has frequently been criticized concerning the aforementioned right, and its violation, in the operations of Guantanamo Bay Prison. While clearly this is a complicated issue, all necessary measures should be taken to assure the human rights and dignity of those who have been indefinitely detained at Guantanamo Bay, and that the detainees receive fair and impartial representation at trial.8 In our research of the various human rights concerns in the MENA region, our team has come to some general conclusions that dispel various common myths about the region and the causes for human rights violations in it. Thus, we have concluded that religion is very often manipulated for political purposes. This is just as true about Islam as it is about Christianity, Judaism, or any other ideology or belief. Therefore, politics rather than religion determines the level of human rights in each country of the region. Further, domestic policies are influenced
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