Arab Spring: Documenting Human Rights Abuses
American Bar Association
Section of International Law
International Human Rights Committee
Moderator: Peter Rosenblum - Columbia University Law School
Speakers:
Sarah Leah Whitson - Executive Director, Human Rights Watch (Middle East/Africa)
Nadim Houry - Senior Research and Beirut Director, Human Rights Watch
* Whitson opens up today’s conversational, yet passionate, teleconference from New York with a resounding insight about the duality of revolutions. “It’s interesting being the object of criticism from so many different camps,” Whitson says. “But that’s partially our job too, to criticize governments and human rights abusers.”
* After a street seller self-immolated himself Tunisia, and Egyptian student Khaled Said was murdered, Human Rights Watch stepped up its ground research team in neighboring Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria. Since then, the focus has been about basic access, calls for dignity and anti-corruption pleas.
* Locations like Tunisia are fairly homogenous, Whitson explains. Egypt is much more socially, ethnically, and culturally diversified and stratified among neighborhoods - therefore more worrisome in terms of outcomes.
* Whitson explains that Human Rights Watch wants to have researchers on the ground to document and verify instantly. “Are forces armed or unarmed? How is the government responding? How is the information we’re willing to put out directly challenging narratives of what government propagandists are trying to put out?”
* From ground level, journalists and activists quickly mobilize and activate contacts who provide accurate reports of neighborhood activity to discredit government propaganda, or false facts. In doing so, Human Rights Watch manages huge, realtime movements of people and data in a consortium of news and violation updates.
* In many cases, Human Rights Watch is the only accountable source on the ground. Whitson notes that they provide “an international voice to [human rights advocacy], as we provide much more credibility to the community as a whole”. Additionally, the same fact-gathering strategies are used in Iran, Syria, and Lybia as Arab Spring progresses.
* “The Libya uprising came on the heels of Egypt,” Whitson says. “There’s a unanimous consensus of hating Gadhafi. He truly is the dictator that everyone loves to hate.”
* That said, China has never voted yes to an International Criminal Court referral - until now.
* So what rights are at stake? “Basic political and civil rights, for one. A great lack of freedoms of speech and assembly also restrict public association, protests, and activism,” Whitson says. Those with an agenda - no matter the level of severity, from minute critique to full blown protest - are detained or curtailed by governments.
* Rosenblum transfers the call to Nadim Houry, who researches methods of relaying information on the ground in hostile environments between people and their governments.
* “No one saw Syria coming. We had a strong presence in Cairo, but we’ve established a new and growing presence in Alexandria and Triploli, among others. Security forces maintain a very tight control. Our job is to get past the tape.”
* Houry’s name has been on a Syrian government watch list since 2008 (he started reporting from the street in 2006), but he explains that Human Rights Watch researchers and ground communicators attempt to move as close as possible towards the government’s inner circle by acting as tourists, and relying on innocence as their greatest weapon.
* “We have to be excruciatingly careful. There is no perfect formula other than the commitment to the safety and security of people internationally - the key principles of our work.”
* Building networks of people is vital, according to Houry and Whitson. Even if you’ve never met a neighbor’s cousin, for instance, getting an introduction over the phone is enough to gather reliable information. While random footage on sites like YouTube can be helpful, it often lacks the type of desirable credibility that firsthand accounts can provide.
* Finally, the panel turns to one important question from the American lawyers present: what is the American Bar Association doing to support States-based legel counsel on advocacy and transitions in the Arab world?
* “Western legal scrutiny is incredibly important,” Whitson concludes. “Third party monitoring, and trial access provide a sense of balance that can dispel the public relations schemes of most abusive regimes.”
