Report: Human Rights On the Decline

AFP reports the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies has released an extensive report on the state of human rights in 12 Arab countries. The report, entitled “Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform,” concludes human rights has deteriorated across the Arab world in 2009 as “peaceful rotation of power through representative politics, and clean and competitive elections remained a dream in most countries.” Egypt and Syria were specifically identified as primary human rights abusers, especially in the use of torture and repressing rights activists.

CIHRS has made the report available online in Arabic, along with a report summary and introduction translated into English.