DUBAI: Authorities in Gulf countries have stepped harassment of political activists in the past year even as the oil-rich states showcase themselves as expanding economic and cultural powerhouses, an international human rights group said on Wednesday.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2011 that the human rights situation has sharply deteriorated in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Yemen with authorities harassing, prosecuting and jailing activists who advocate political reforms and greater press freedoms.
The report notes that officials have stepped up monitoring of blogs and social media, which played a key role in the uprising that brought down Tunisia’s ruler earlier this month and has served as an inspiration for political activists across the Middle East.
"Events in Tunisia have lifted our hearts and raised our morale to the ceiling," said Ahmed Mansour, a human rights activist and a blogger in the United Arab Emirates. "It’s the first peaceful revolution that has managed to overthrow a strong dictator who was in power for more than 20 years."
While activists in the Gulf would like to be able to change a government that "does not perform and respect human rights," Mansour said "we don’t expect the wave of change in Tunisia will reach all Arab countries."
Activists in the Gulf countries like the UAE — a conservative Muslim federation of seven emirates of which Dubai and Abu Dhabi pride themselves with a Western outlook — are only beginning the struggle for change by asking for "prerequisites for democracy" such as independent media and practicing the right to express themselves more freely.
In the past year, UAE authorities have stepped up efforts to quell online dissent by blocking news portals, blog posts and popular discussion forums, Human Rights Watch said. They interrogated activists posting articles online and mounted pressure on the Jurist Association, the only independent organization that has been promoting the rule of law since its establishment in 1980, said HRW.
"The actions by the UAE authorities against its human rights advocates are completely inconsistent with the government’s message that this is an open and tolerant country," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group’s Middle East director. She spoke at the release of the Gulf portion of the annual report in Dubai.
Whitson said the UAE and governments around the region should take "a long hard look" at what happens to governments that suppress the rights of their citizens.
"Tunisians are not the only ones in the Arab world who will insist that no government has the right to trample their rights," Whitson added.
