October 20th, 2010 by Anna

Reporters Without Borders released its annual World Press Freedom Index today. In the Middle East and North Africa, press freedom saw mild improvements in some places, but deterioration overall. Morocco dropped 8 places in the global ranking, which the report’s authors attribute to “the arbitrary closing down of a newspaper, the financial ruin of another newspaper, orchestrated by the authorities, etc.” Tunisia’s score also worsened “because of its policy of systematic repression enforced by government leaders in Tunis against any person who expresses an idea contrary to that of the regime,” as well as a new amendment to the penal code that essentially criminalizes contact with foreign organizations that could damage national economic interests. In Syria and Yemen, press freedom continues to suffer as arbitrary arrests and torture are “still routine,” and crackdowns in Iran have kept that country at the near-bottom of the index. The rankings went down for Bahrain and Kuwait due to an uptick in charges against bloggers, including prominent Kuwaiti blogger Mohammed Abdel Qader Al-Jassem. The Palestinian Territories rose 11 places because “the violations committed in the year just ended are simply ‘less serious’ than in 2009,” and Algeria also saw mild improvements in media freedom. In Iraq, a higher score reflects the fact that journalists now work in safer conditions than in the past.

Posted in Bahrain, Freedom, Gulf, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Middle Eastern Media, Palestine, Syria, Technology, Tunisia | Comment »

October 4th, 2010 by Evan

Posted in Human Rights, Journalism, Syria | Comment »

September 30th, 2010 by Jason

Questions are being raised about how a new draft law will affect internet access and freedom in Syria. Obaida Hamad writes in Syria Today that the draft law has been “finalised.” Details about the law are sparse, but Hamad postulates that, “it will entail a voluntary system of registration with the Ministry of Information, by which sites can choose to be officially recognised. Another proposed clause is that sites nominate someone who is ultimately responsible for content.” The efficacy of these controls is questionable. As  Taleb Kadi Amin, a former deputy information minister, points out, “‘Sites are already blocked and people work out how to access them very quickly. Facebook is blocked, but it remains one of the most viewed sites in Syria.’”

In the New York Times, Robert Worth writes that Syrians have “a tenuous measure of freedom” on the internet but that freedom “is threatened by an ever present fog of fear and intimidation, and some journalists fear that it could soon be snuffed out,” due to the new law. Worth notes that the regime maintains a Facebook page for President Bashar al-Assad.

Posted in Freedom, Syria, Technology | Comment »

September 27th, 2010 by Evan

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, in partnership with Human Rights Watch, recently released  a report documenting continued human right abuses during Bashar al-Assad’s rule entitled “The President’s 10 Year Anniversary: Curbing Worsening Repression and Human Rights Abuses in Syria.” While many hoped that al-Assad would be a moderating and modernizing force, the opposite has been true: “In these ten years, he has further entrenched a system of policies and practices that ensure the continued monopolization of authority and control by the Ba’ath Party, which has held the reins of power for the past 47 years. In this decade, Bashar al-Assad has proven his ability to suppress every appeal for democratic reform coming from within Syria, and successfully deflecting the various international pressures for democratization that began to be felt seven years ago.”  The authors call on the international community to “take action to encourage the Syrian authorities to respect its international obligations to strengthen and respect human rights and rapidly institute reform measures.”

Posted in Human Rights, Syria | Comment »

September 17th, 2010 by Anna

Sarah Carr of Daily News Egypt reported yesterday that a group of Egyptian activists from the Arab Network for Human Rights Information and the April 6 Youth Movement plan to demonstrate outside Syria’s embassy in Egypt on Sunday. They are calling for the release of 19 year-old Syrian blogger Tal el-Melouhy, who has been in detention for nine months. El-Melouhy reportedly wrote and published pieces in support of the Palestinian cause on her blog “Medawwenty,” and was arrested last December. A few weeks ago, the blogger’s mother wrote an open letter to President Al-Assad in which she stated that she received promises from security officials that her daughter would be released by the start of Ramadan. According to Egyptian activist Mohamed Maree, al-Melouhy’s young age is part of the reason that Egyptians are protesting, and said: “Tal will be a symbol of human rights abuses in Syria. During the protest we will call for her release in addition to the release of other prisoners of conscience.”

Posted in Egypt, Freedom, Human Rights, NGOs, Protests, Syria | Comment »

September 16th, 2010 by Evan

NPR’s Deborah Amos has a new report on the cautious liberalization of the Syrian press. Through a series of interviews with Syrian radio personalities, magazine editors, and Western experts, Amos describes how privatization has opened more space for debate on previously taboo social issues. “‘Sex education and child abuse, and molestation, anorexia, bulimia and divorce and marital problems’” are all topics Syrian radio host Honey al-Sayed talks about on a regular basis. Politics, however, remains proscribed. According to the journalists Amos interviews, censorship is no longer overt but is nonetheless a powerful force: “‘It’s suicide to walk over the red lines. It’s professional suicide to walk way below it,’” an editor told Amos, adding “‘What’s smart is to walk on that red line and try to push the bar so you raise the red line of what can be said and what can not be said — perhaps slowly, but eventually they are changed.’”

Posted in Journalism, Syria | Comment »

September 10th, 2010 by Evan

A recent article in The National highlights progress on human rights in Syria: “Civil society activists say they are ‘cautiously optimistic’ that Damascus may be softening its hardline stance on human rights after Syria opened its doors for the first time to a UN investigator.”  Syrian officials had previously ignored requests by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct similar investigations. According to National correspondent Phil Sands,  Syria’s recent acquiescence is part of broader effort to prepare for a formal review of its rights record by the Human Rights Council in 2011.

Posted in Human Rights, Syria, United Nations | Comment »

September 7th, 2010 by Jason

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has taken back the accusation that Syria assassinated his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “At a certain stage we made mistakes and accused Syria of assassinating the martyred premier. This was a political accusation, and this political accusation has finished.” Hariri has been working to repair relations with Syria of late while a U.N. backed commission continues to investigate the 2005 assassination. Babylon & Beyond has an extensive wrap up of reactions to Hariri’s statement  including Jamil Mroue of the Daily Star who commented, “Hariri has shown his leadership” and a blogger called “Mustapha” who asked, “Could Mr. Hariri have sold-out justice for his father to political expediency (or Saudi pressure)?”

Posted in Lebanon, Syria | Comment »

September 3rd, 2010 by Anna

In The National yesterday, Phil Sands highlighted excerpts from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s memoirs (entitled A Journey), in which Blair confirms Syrian fears that the U.S. considered attacking Damascus following the invasion of Iraq. Blair asserts in his book that Dick Cheney wanted to “work…through the whole lot, Iraq, Syria, Iran, dealing with all their surrogates in the course of it – Hizbollah, Hamas, etc.” In Blair’s view, Syrian leaders reacted to the possibility of a U.S. strike by, among other things, repressing domestic dissent and imprisoning pro-democracy activists. Sands adds, “That crackdown continues to this day.”

Posted in Civil Society, Syria, US foreign policy | Comment »

August 30th, 2010 by Evan

New York Times reporter Kareem Fahim’s profile of Chavia Ali, a Syrian disability rights activist, describes a conundrum facing many civil society leaders in Syria. After years of government opposition, Ali’s organization is flourishing. She now receives funding from Syria’s first lady Asma al-Assad and is regularly featured in the government-backed press. Her success, however, comes with the implicit agreement that she will avoid controversial political issues. Fahim writes,  “In the narrow alleyways of civic life permitted by authoritarian governments in the region, opportunities exist as long as certain limits are observed. While foreign aid groups often cheer the explosive growth of organizations that help women, children or the environment, there are questions about whether the groups can change the political order.”

Posted in Civil Society, Democracy Promotion, Syria | Comment »

August 30th, 2010 by Jason

Salam Kawakibi, a senior researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative and the University of Amsterdam, has a new paper examining the re-emergence of the private media in Syria. Kawakibi gives a detailed history of the media in Syria beginning with the Baathist takeover in 1963. He explains that while the Baathist constitution protected free expression, a “state of emergency” was almost immediately declared and the government began “suppressing” the publication of newspapers with few exceptions. The censorship extended to radio and television as well, eventually becoming systemic due to the understanding that, “Since the party considers itself the embodiment of the national interest, this gives it the legitimacy to proscribe all forms of private publication that do not serve its interests, i.e. ‘the nation’s interest.’”

In 1970, Hafez al-Assad rose to power during a period known for “The Correction Movement”, which helped to end infighting in the Baath party. One of the new projects was the Press Institute, a government school that taught journalism, “…albeit with a degree course biased by propaganda.” While Assad would eventually ease restrictions in an attempt to broaden his coalition of allies, the state security structure maintained the status quo. Censorship was aided by the journalists and editors themselves in an attempt to curry favor with the Baath party.

Soon after Assad’s son Bashar came to power in 2000, a new law allowed privately owned media to reappear for the first time since 1963. Since then, numerous media organizations have emerged. Some claim to be free and unbiased but often, as in the case of the television station al-Dunya, a closer look reveals, ” (al-Dunya)… lost all credibility as soon as the owners’ names became public: businessmen closely linked to the country’s influential political authorities.”

Kawakibi concludes by noting that, “In 2009, over 50 newspaper and magazine issues were suspended by the Ministry of Information…Appeals to the authorities to increase openness and reconsider the necessity for deregulating the public sphere are growing in number all the time. The response has so far been exclusively negative, but there is hope.”

Posted in Civil Society, Journalism, Syria | Comment »

July 30th, 2010 by Jennifer

Elias Muhanna writing at his blog Qifa Nabki suggests that the upcoming summit in Beirut on the issue of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)—which will be attended by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah—indicates a shift in the March 14 coalition and Saudi Arabia’s approach toward Hezbollah, as well as toward regional actors backing Hezbollah, such as Syria and Iran. In light of recent comments by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that the STL may issue an indictment against some elements of the organization, Muhanna argues that such a verdict “could thrust Lebanon into complete political paralysis and possible sectarian violence,” noting that Hezbollah may decide to withdraw its members from Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s cabinet if pressured and cripple the government, as it did in late 2006. Two or three years ago, Muhanna says, Hezbollah’s opponents “would have been very happy to use the indictments to try to push Hizbullah into a corner, furthering pressuring its regional sponsors in Damascus and Tehran”; the high-level meeting in Beirut reveals “a much more cautious policy of containment which recognizes the valuable political capital that may soon be delivered via an STL indictment against Hizbullah, but which also recognizes the folly of bearing down too hard on the Shiite party.”

Posted in Hezbollah, Lebanon, Political Parties, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Nations | Comment »

July 26th, 2010 by Jennifer

Almost 30 human rights groups– including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, as well as organizations based in Bahrain, Belgium, Egypt, France, Jordan and Sweden –have petitioned Syrian President Bashir al-Assad to release Haytham al-Maleh, a 79-year-old rights lawyer and activist who had worked for Amnesty International since 1989 and also helped found a Syrian rights group. Al-Maleh was sentenced to 3 years in prison earlier this month under the charge of “publishing false information that could weaken national morale,” and was jailed on Sunday. The rights groups expressed “deep concern” over the activist’s “deteriorating health,” joining the U.S., France, and Germany, who have also demanded his release.

Posted in Human Rights, Syria, US foreign policy | Comment »

July 19th, 2010 by Farid

Hanin Ghaddar writes for NOW Lebanon that Mamoun Homsi, a former Syrian MP and political activist who has been residing in Lebanon since 2006,  has now been ordered to  return to Syria, where he would likely beimprisoned. Before coming to Lebanon, Homsi was imprisoned for five years in Syria for “attempting to illegally change the constitution.” Believing in Lebanon as the “oasis of freedom and democracy in the Arab world,” he was a signee of the Beirut-Damascus Declaration of May 2006 calling on Syria to respect Lebanon as a sovereign state.

Now that the Ministry of Interior is banishing him from Lebanon, Homsi is very disappointed with the verdict. Ghaddar reports that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees officially recognizes Homsi as a refugee and  there is also nothing that “would contradict the terms of his residency in Lebanon.” “This is not about Homsi anymore, or freedom in Syria. It is about Lebanon and what we want for it. We cannot send Homsi to Syrian prison after all we’ve been through and all the sacrifices that we made,”says Ghaddar. In a press release against the decision, the National Bloc called on the Lebanese government to ‘immediately correct this error.’

Posted in Human Rights, Lebanon, Syria | Comment »

July 16th, 2010 by Farid

In a striking new report (read the full document as a pdf) by Human Rights Watch, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad’s presidency is evaluated after a decade in power. The report, “A wasted Decade: Human Rights in Syria During Bashar al-Asad’s First Ten Years in Power,” highlights 5 key areas of the Syrian human rights record: Repression of Political and Human Rights Activism; Restriction on Freedom of Expression; Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Enforced Disappearances; Repression of Kurds; and Legacy of Enforced Disappearances.

In a new piece in The Guardian, Nadim Houry examines the reasons for al-Asad’s failure to keep his promise, stating, “Syria’s opaque decision-making process makes it very difficult to know the real reasons that drove Assad early on to loosen some of the country’s restrictions on expression and public gatherings, only to clamp down a few months later and increasingly tighten his grip ever since.” Despite better relations with the West in the past three years, al-Asad has not shown signs of improving his human rights record, Houry states, adding that “a review of Syria’s record shows a consistent policy of repressing dissent regardless of international or regional pressures on Syria.”

Posted in Human Rights, Syria | Comment »

July 7th, 2010 by Jennifer

In a piece in Foreign Policy, Freedom House highlights the twenty nations it has identified as the “least free” in its 2010 Freedom in the World report. Six nations and territories in the Greater Middle East and North Africa (GMENA) are featured in the piece: Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.

Freedom House offers harsh criticism of the human rights and democracy records of the regimes in these areas. Regarding Libya, the piece argues that “despite Libya’s new, more positive image, gross abuse of human rights endures. Organizing or joining anything akin to a political party is punishable with long prison terms and even death.” The piece criticizes President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, pointing to the fact that al-Bashir rules as a military dictator, is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and oversaw “highly flawed” elections earlier this year. While giving a nod to some steps at reform recently taken by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, it points out that critics view these measures as aimed at consolidating Abdullah’s power, and calls Saudi Arabia “an authoritarian monarchy in which all political power is held by the royal family.”

Regarding Syria, the piece observes that President Bashar al-Assad’s “early presidency saw a brief political opening that was quickly replaced by a return to repression. Freedoms of expression, association, and assembly are now tightly restricted.” It emphasizes the high numbers of political prisoners held by the Syrian regime, specifically pointing out the cases of prominent activists Ali al-Abdallah, Muhannad al-Hassani, and Haitham al-Maleh, whose sentencing was recently condemned by the U.S. government. Finally, the article designates the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara– the site of a long-running territorial dispute between Algeria and Morocco -as one of the least free areas in the world, commenting that local “Sahrawi activists, human rights defenders, and others continue to face harassment and arbitrary detention and torture. Moroccan authorities regularly use force when quelling demonstrations in Sahrawi villages.”

Posted in Freedom, Libya, Publications, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Western Sahara | Comment »

July 6th, 2010 by Jennifer

The White House released a statement by National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer, condemning Syria’s conviction and sentencing of two prominent human rights lawyers: Haitham Maleh on July 4, and Mohannad al-Hassani on June 23. The statement also condemned the re-arrest and charging of Ali Abdullah, a rights activist and member of the Damascus Declaration’s National Council. Characterizing the government’s actions against dissidents as “part of a worrying trend,” the statement called on the Syrian government “to meet its responsibilities under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to end its practice of arbitrary arrests and detention and to permit its citizens freedom of expression and association.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued parallel remarks condemning Maleh’s conviction, stating that the ruling “is an example of Syria’s failure to comply with minimum international human rights standards. Convicting Maleh for exercising free speech and defending universal human rights sends a clear message to the world that Syria does not tolerate peaceful forms of expression.” Both sets of comments called on Syria to release its political prisoners.

Maleh has worked with Amnesty International since 1989, helped to establish the Syrian Human Rights Association (ADHS) in 2001, and was awarded the Dutch Geuzen Medal in 2006. Hasni is president of the Syrian Organization for Human Rights and was recently awarded the prestigious Martin Ennals Award. Both activists have called for a repeal of Syria’s emergency law and carried out a number of actions in defense human rights; they were charged with “weakening national morale.” Commentators are expressing particular concern that Maleh, age 79, may not be able to survive the three-year prison sentence.

Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Syria, US foreign policy | Comment »

June 24th, 2010 by Jennifer

Robert Fisk in The Independent today discusses a report on human rights violations in Syria recently released by the Transitional Justice in the Arab World Project. The report, entitled “Years of Fear: Truth and Justice in the Issue of Forced Disappearances in Syria” and compiled by Radwan Ziadeh, head of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies, details egregious human rights violations that occurred under the regime of former Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad, father of current president Bashar al-Assad.

Though Fisk cautions the reader to take the report with a grain of salt– calling attention to the fact that Ziadeh changed the names and altered some of the facts surrounding the individuals interviewed, and alleging that the report “contains some obvious errors” — he nonetheless views its findings as important. According to Fisk, the document sheds light on horrific acts of arrest, torture, extra-judicial execution, and forced disappearance carried out systemically against the Syrian people over the three decades of Hafez al-Assad’s rule, in violation of Syria’s own laws. In that light, Fisk commends the report for pointing to the discrepancy between the Syrian government’s harsh repression on the one hand, and Section 3 of Article 28 of Syria’s constitution on the other, which states that “no one may be tortured physically or mentally or be treated in a humiliating manner,” along with another Syrian law that orders the state to “take the necessary legislative, administrative, and judicial measures to prevent and terminate acts of enforced disappearance.”

Citing the report, Fisk notes that as many as 25,000 Syrians may have “disappeared” since the early 1980s, indirectly affecting up to a million Syrians. The report also cites evidence to substantiate a claim that the infamous “field courts” used by the regime to bypass due process of law, were run by Ghazi Kenaan, the former head of Syrian army intelligence in Lebanon.

Fisk also states that the report makes it “all too clear” that the transition of rule to Bashar al-Assad “has not produced the democratic ’spring’ in Syria which many Arab intellectuals had hoped for.” Though the report proposes that most cases of imprisonment and disappearance occurred before 2000 and Bashar’s assumption of power, Fisk implies that the stifling overall climate for freedom and human rights in Syria created under the father has not significantly opened up under the son.

Fisk also criticizes U.S. collusion with the Syrian security apparatus, stating that “the American government happily renditioned prisoners to Damascus in the sure knowledge that the Syrians would ignore their constitution and torture the suspects to their heart’s content.”

Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Syria | Comment »

June 23rd, 2010 by Jennifer

Leading Syrian human rights lawyer and activist Mohannad al-Hassani has reportedly been convicted for “weakening national sentiment” and “conveying within Syria false news that could debilitate the morale of the nation” and sentenced to three years in prison. Al-Hassani, who has defended democratic activists in Syria and was honored this year with the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for his work on behalf of political prisoners and the rule of law, was arrested last July after he drew public attention to unfair trials of political prisoners before the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC).

Local and international human rights organizations have voiced serious concern over the sentencing, with the Syrian Human Rights League (SHRL) arguing that “none of the minimum conditions and criteria for a fair trail” were met, while Amenesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, Malcolm Smart, condemned the decision, stating that al-Hassani “is a prisoner of conscience who has done no more than stand up for the human rights of those who fall foul of the Syrian authorities and expose unfair trials and other abuses.” Smart called on President Bashar al-Assad to intervene directly to release al-Hassani and clear him of all charges.

Al-Hassani’s lawyers are currently considering an appeal.

Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Syria | 1 Comment »

June 3rd, 2010 by Farid

Freedom House has published an interesting new report, “Worst of the Worst”, listing the world’s most repressive states and human rights abusers. Among the seventeen countries listed are Saudi Arabia, Syria and Sudan. According to the report, these countries represent states that will “use every means necessary to prevent progress in democratic governance.”

Posted in Democracy Promotion, Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria | Comment »