CAIRO: The lead writer of the United Nations Arab Human Development Report withdrew from the project in protest at what he says is self-censorship and oversensitivity to outsider opinions.
At a press conference Tuesday, Cairo University Political Science Professor Mustafa Kamel El-Sayyid said that members of the United Nations organization made changes that he could not support and removed sections of his work that he believed to be essential.
The alterations were made without my consent or consultation, and I was told to take it as it is and support it, El-Sayyid said.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Arab States will launch the report, titled “Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries, at a ceremony in Beirut on July 21.
In a press release yesterday, the UNDP responded to El-Sayyid’s grievances without naming the author. “No one person owns the report. It is a collaborative process, the press release said. “This is how true independence of the report is assured.
At his press conference, El-Sayyid said he could not agree with changes that had been made. The edited version, for instance, does not include a chapter in the original work that focused on identity conflicts within the Arab world. He said that it lacked substantial depth on the violence and non-violent tension between Sunni and Shia Muslims in some countries.
The identity conflict in the Arab world is a ticking bomb ready to explode at any moment, El-Sayyid said. But, “there were a few people who objected to the section in the report concerning the issue of the Arab identity, and the UN sided with them, he said. “They were only a minority.
The author also said that several chapters had been switched around. A section on the impact of foreign occupation was placed at the end, a move that El-Sayyid said he believed was pandering to the United States and Israel.
He had previously been concerned with pressure from outside of the organization. This time, he said, it came from within the UNDP.
In the past, there were objections from the Americans and Israelis. But I am not saying that there is interference from their side this time around, but there is self-censorship from within the UN itself. The UN employees are the ones responsible for the alterations made to the report.
The UNDP, which has been working in Egypt and the Middle East for over 50 years, commissions national and regional reports covering over 140 countries.
In July 2007, the UNDP approached El-Sayyid, who is the Director of the Cairo University Center for the Study of Developing Countries, to head the fifth Arab Regional Report. After several draft consultations with UNDP officials, El-Sayyid submitted a final copy in early 2009.
Three months later, the UNDP presented the final report to El-Sayyid, complete with the changes with which El-Sayyid did not agree.
The UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States based in Cairo declined to comment on El-Sayyid’s specific concerns but referred questions to the UNDP press release.
“The preparation process involves over a hundred contributors, the UNDP wrote. “This year’s report – like all its predecessors – has witnessed its fair share of intellectual debate.
