DOHA: Amnesty International said yesterday it has no political agenda in the Arab world and objectively reports human rights violations all over the world, including the US and the UK.
Asked why Amnesty focused on terror outfits in the Arab world when there were about 63 such groups in Europe, an Amnesty official said European countries are open to them and other human rights institutions but Arab countries are not.
Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director, Amnesty International’s MENA Programme, said his organisation has 70 million members the world over, including in several Arab countries.
He was replying to questions on the concluding day of a two-day international conference on ‘challenges to security and human rights in the Arab region’.
“We as an NGO don’t accept any support from governments so the accusation that our reports are politicised against Arab countries is baseless,” said Said.
During a question-answer session after a panel discussion, he said Amnesty has members in Algeria, Bahrain, Morocco and Tunisia, among other Arab countries. “We objectively report human rights violations committed by governments and armed groups across the world with no exception.”
He said he was focusing on human rights violations in Arab countries today (yesterday) because that was the subject of discussion at the forum.
He said there were human rights violations in some GCC countries as well. During the panel discussion, he said some Arab countries were using anti-terror laws to violate human rights. Bahrain has banned protests and has not sentenced any senior police official in connection with incidents of 2011, he said.
In the UAE, tens of people are accused of involvement in terror activities and have been tortured. In Egypt, violence is perpetrated against Islamist groups and civil societies. In Kuwait, legal activists are being harassed, according to Said. Tunisia is the only Arab country with very few cases of human right abuse, he added.
Two women have been killed there and no investigations have been launched yet. That’s the only worrying incident that has taken place in Tunisia, said the Amnesty official.
Asked what he thought of Islamic State (IS), he said the situation was complicated.
Armed groups appeared in Iraq after the US invasion in 2003. Before that, during Saddam Hussein’s regime, there were no armed groups. Extremist groups have sprung up in Iraq due to human rights violations which are still continuing. Absence of democracy, freedom and freedom of speech are some of the factors responsible for extremist groups raising their heads in Iraq, he added.The Peninsula
