![]() Mass incarceration of individuals on political grounds remained a significant problem, with serious social repercussions in several countries.Instead, many violations and systemic problems continued, to which the following examples attest: There were no notable human rights advances in the region in 2021. While Egypt recently ended its long-standing emergency law, which had been in force for the better part of the last 40 years, many onerous restrictions remained in place and the parliament passed new legislation codifying official powers that appeared to reproduce provisions in the emergency law. Egypt notoriously jailed doctors for criticizing the government’s COVID-19 policies, then passed a raft of emergency laws designed to extend governmental and, particularly, presidential powers. Algeria leveraged public health pleas to persuade pro-democracy demonstrators of the “Hirak” movement to get off the streets, then pivoted immediately to a campaign of arrests targeting Hirak leaders as well as journalists and bloggers. But these new authorities are likely remaining in force even in a post-pandemic period. Governments in the MENA region have taken full advantage to extend their own powers, ostensibly to confront the burgeoning pandemic. This has helped autocratic leaders in the Middle East and North Africa by subverting the supposed moral authority of western nations that might otherwise have pushed back on concerted efforts by regional regimes to crush protests, hound dissidents in person and online, and delegitimize criticism of governments and leaders. Last year marked the 15 th annual decline of global democracy, according to Freedom House, attributable not only to the rise of populist politicians and parties in younger and weaker democracies, but to backsliding in more established democratic systems as well, particularly the United States. As Global Democracy Declines, Human Rights Abuses Rise If there is good news, it is that the story is unlikely to end there. Western nations have bigger, more worrisome issues, in particular the possible invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which frees up space for Middle East autocrats to do as they please. The Biden Administration’s vaunted Summit for Democracy largely ignored the Middle East.Īt the start of the new year, then, the picture for both democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) seems bleak, with few prospects for improvement. The United States under President Joe Biden had promised tough action against human rights abusers in the region, notably Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but for the most part failed to deliver. The European Union appeared to ignore human rights abuses in favor of cooperating with governments to conclude economic and security deals or stem the tide of unauthorized migrants. Reports of torture and abuse in jails and prisons-not only physical abuse but lack of access by prisoners to health care and legal due process-persisted stubbornly as well.įoreign governments, including those with great influence on the world stage and close ties to regional leaderships, were largely passive or silent. ![]() Government surveillance of and crackdowns on online activity appeared to intensify. The number of individuals imprisoned for political activities, including criticism of rulers or government agencies, remained high. ![]() Repression by governments in the region reached new levels of cruelty, with few signs of letup. An authoritarian president in Tunisia suspended parliament and seized full executive powers in a Latin-America style “self-coup,” while in Sudan, the de facto military chief took power from a transitional council that was ruling the country in preparation for national elections for a civilian government in 2023. Once hopeful transitions to democracy have now ground to a screaming halt. ![]() The pandemic allowed them to go far beyond public health to lock in new restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, and they continue to restrict political space today. Promising protest movements that began in 2019 and extended into early 2020 lost steam once the coronavirus struck governments in the region took full advantage to grant themselves emergency powers under the cover of public health dictates. Any survey of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa at the start of 2022 has to open with the bad news. ![]()
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