OHCHR Human Rights Programme for the Middle East and Northern Africa Region (2006-2007)

Situation Analysis: In recent years, many Arab States have taken positive steps towards political, legal, economic, and social reform. These measures include holding multi-party legislative and municipal elections, establishing national human rights institutions, facilitating the work of NGOs, respecting the right of freedom of expression, and improving the status of women.

Despite these improvements, obstacles to the full realization of human rights remain, including: armed conflict, impunity, limits on women’s and migrant rights, limits on freedom of expression and association, a lack of protection for human rights defenders, and the imposition of emergency laws. Although a number of national institutions have been established, the continued absence of democratic structures is an obstacle to the growth and empowerment of the civil society across the region.

Almost all Arab countries are parties to the core human rights treaties and some of the optional protocols. However, reporting on how the treaties are implemented and follow-up on recommendations made by the treaty bodies remains insufficient.

Regional Priorities and Strategy: OHCHR will focus on: encouraging the ratification and implementation of human rights treaties, and reporting on how these obligations are fulfilled; reinforcing the administration of justice and the rule of law; and increasing women’s access to justice.

In an effort to close the capacity gap, the Office will help to develop and implement national human rights action plans; support human rights education, gender mainstreaming, and the empowerment of women throughout the region, and assist in the creation of national human rights institutions that conform to the Paris Principles. To bridge the commitment gap, the Office will encourage governments to engage in democratic and institutional reform in cooperation with United Nations agencies and civil society. To help close the security gap, OHCHR will monitor the human rights situation in Iraq. OHCHR Palestine will focus attention on the situation of human rights defenders, disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, and the death penalty.

The priority thematic areas for OHCHR’s work in the Middle East and Northern Africa Region include law enforcement, emergency laws, impunity, migrants’ rights, trafficking in persons, women’s rights, the Millennium Development Goals, protecting human rights defenders, the impact of counterterrorism measures, disappearances, and the application of the death penalty.

In order to implement the strategy effectively, OHCHR plans to reinforce the Middle East Regional Office and the Palestine office, and will open a Regional Office for Northern African States in Cairo. A United Nations Regional Centre for Documentation and Training in the Middle East and Northern Africa Region and Southwest Asia will be established in Qatar.

In the Middle East and Northern Africa Region, OHCHR’s field deployment is projected as follows: