This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

Human rights in the Arab world have deteriorated over the last year as governments flaunt progress on women's issues while evading and actively blocking broader reforms that guarantee dignity for all, says a report.

Beyond issues facing individual countries, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies blames Arab governments and member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for working in concert within UN institutions to undermine international mechanisms and standards for the protection of human rights.

The CIRHS is an independent body whose work is respected by western-based human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Its report, entitled Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, attacks the Arab League for supporting the Sudanese regime, which is criticised for "blatant contempt for justice, impunity and a lack of accountability, and President Omar al-Bashir, who refuses to appear before the nternational criminal court in connection with war crimes in Darfur.

It further accuses the 21-member league of using the principle of national sovereignty as a pretext to remain silent about or collaborate on grave human rights violations in several Arab states.

It says that while only limited progress has been made in gender equality, Arab governments use this "to burnish their image before the international community while simultaneously evading democratic and human rights reform measures required … for all of their citizens".

The report highlights "grave and ongoing" Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, especially in the Gaza Strip, in a year which witnessed the continuing blockade of the territory and an Israeli offensive which led to 1,400 deaths, 83% of them civilians.

Strikingly, it also accuses rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas of "grave abuses" against their opponents, including arbitrary detention, lethal torture, and extrajudicial killings.

Elsewhere in the region, it expresses concern about the possible collapse of the Yemeni state in the context of war in the northern province of Saa'da, a bloody crackdown in the south and social and political unrest throughout the poorest country in the Arab world.

Iraq has witnessed "a relative improvement" in some areas, though these gains remain "fragile", the report says.

The Cairo-based organisation has harsh words for Egypt's record in 2009: emergency laws in force for nearly 30 years were applied to repress freedom of expression, including detaining or abducting bloggers.

Egypt's "police state is increasingly acquiring … theocratic features which have reduced some religious freedoms and have led to an unprecedented expansion of sectarian violence".

In Tunisia, "the authoritarian police state continued … unrestrained attacks on political activists, journalists, human rights defenders, trade unionists, and others involved in social protest." Constitutional amendments disqualified any serious contenders from blocking a fifth term for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in October's presidential election.

Morocco's "relatively improved status" was undermined by intolerance of freedom of expression, particularly concerning the king or the royal family, or institutional corruption. Protests against the status of the Moroccan-administered Western Sahara were repressed and Sahrawi activists were referred to a military tribunal for the first time in 14 years.

Syria continued to "destroy all manner of political opposition, even the most limited manifestations of independent expression," said the CIRHS. The Kurdish minority was kept in check by institutionalised discrimination, and human rights defenders were repeatedly targeted. Syrian prisons hold dozens of prisoners of conscience and democracy advocates.

In Saudi Arabia, the report notes that calls by King Abdullah for religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue have not been heeded inside the kingdom, where the religious police restrict personal freedoms. Repression of religious freedoms is endemic and the Shia minority faces 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 also accuses Arab governments of supporting attempts to legalise international restrictions on freedom of expression through the pretext of prohibiting "defamation of religions".