Western countries should do more to support democracy and human rights in the Arab world, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today at the release of its 2012 World Report.
The 676-page report was launched for the first time in Cairo, “because it is the capital of the Arab world,” said Kenneth Roth, HRW’s executive director. He was present alongside Heba Morayef, HRW’s Cairo-based Middle East and North Africa (MENA) researcher. The annual review looks at more than 90 countries, but this year’s report focuses on the international community’s reactions to the Arab Spring.
Roth said the report “reaches the sad but unavoidable conclusion that western policy for the Arab world has been one of containment. The West has treated Arab people as if they are to be feared, while promoting democracy elsewhere. In the MENA, they supported an array of autocrats as long as they supported western interests.” These Western interests include limiting the rise of political Islam, protecting Israel, maintaining the flow of oil, and stemming migration to Europe, Roth added.
For more: Human Rights Watch: West should do more to support democracy | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt
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