By Salama A Salama A few days ago the world celebrated human rights day. Egypt had intended to mark the occasion with the release of the first annual report of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), the body that was widely touted as the prelude to political reform. The NCHR was supposed to sum up its work and offer its views on obstacles encountered and achievements made. This is what the nation expected and what transparency is all about. For reasons yet unclear the report was not released. Apparently disputes emerged among NCHR members, though little has been made public about the nature of the disputes. All we know is that the NCHR received thousands of complaints, referred them to the relevant authorities and then received only a handful of responses. NCHR members have differed over the emergency laws and preventive custody arrangements. The NCHR has not so far addressed the issue of political detainees, some of whom have spent over 20 years in prison. Many people are still in prison despite the courts ordering their release. The NCHR visited some prisons and reached the incredible conclusion that all was well. The state of human rights in Egypt is not much different to that in other Arab countries. Human rights have suffered the same setbacks throughout the region, not least because of the hysteria promoted by the US across the globe on the pretext of fighting terror. Arbitrary action and extra-judicial measures are now common in the US and elsewhere. The situation is particularly deplorable in the Third World, including Arab countries. No wonder that sectarian tensions flared up in Egypt over one of the simplest of human rights -- namely, the freedom of belief and the right of any individual to change his or her faith without hindrance or punishment. Heavy handed security and the excessive use of force have become the most common methods of dealing with any contingency. The current situation is hardly conducive to healthy political life. When the Taba attacks happened thousands of people were arrested according to foreign reports which the authorities have yet to deny. Such conduct is repeated across the Arab world, and it is in a way a continuation of the horrors the US committed in Abu Ghraib. One cannot realistically expect human rights to improve in the Arab world until democracy takes root and a system of checks and balances is in place. Alas, the chances of these happening are minimal. Our ruling elites are so happily blinkered that they fail to notice the need for reform until the US and Europe point it out. Yet the West is itself willing to lower its democratic and human rights thresholds when it deems it convenient to do so. The West has happily traded civil rights for harsher measures against terrorist and Islamist groups. It is the fashion now to blame the latter for every ill under the sun, from Iraq to Palestine and beyond. As far as the Arab world is concerned, though, human rights agencies will remain ineffectual, incapable of inspiring the public or implementing reform, as long as they are officially appointed and possess nothing beyond consultative powers.
