Brussels, 25/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the Summit between the EU and the United States, to take place in Dublin on 26 June (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.5), representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) have called for civil society's involvement in Euro-American initiatives for political reform in the Arab world.
Civil society should have a central role in formulating priorities for reform, the means to implement them and criteria to assess that this is being done, representatives of the three NGOs told the press in Brussels on Wednesday. "We feel that the fate of the Arab world is not in the hands of the Arab people", said Kamel Jendoubi, the President of EMHRN. His words were confirmed by CIHRS director Bahey EL Din Hassan, who said that "one of the main reasons the Barcelona Process failed is that civil society was not fully involved in formulating and implementing reforms".
After the last European Council's adoption of the report by the Irish Presidency, Javier Solana and Chris Patten on the strategic partnership between the EU and the Mediterranean region and the Middle East (see EUROPE of 19 June, p.5), Kamel Jendoubi was less than optimistic: "we are concerned that the situation could drag on, and that the EU will not play the role expected of it", in relation to the positions it has taken on human rights. The resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict and of the Iraqi crisis should not be a pre-requisite for a process of democratic reforms in the Arab world, said Michel Tubiana, Vice-President of FIDH, noting that the fight against terrorism is "an excellent pretext for totalitarian regimes not to reform".
Meeting for the first time together in Brussels, the three NGOs explained that their actions are justified by the impossibility of entering dialogue with the Arab countries. "The governments will not listen to our requests from the inside, but are interested in those from outside", said Bahey El Din Hassan several times, referring to the situation in Egypt. For this reason, they hope to be heard by going via Europe.