2021 will mark the 10th anniversary of the mass uprisings that have come to be known as the Arab Spring. The event that triggered the revolt was the self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor, Mohammad Bouazizi, who set himself on fire as a sign of protest against the Tunisian regime. Following his death, people assembled in the hope of forcing a corrupt regime out of office and then, in a domino effect, protests started across the region. 

The reasons that brought the region to protest are many and can be found in social, political, and economic problems, such as hunger, poverty, youth unemployment, social inequality, lack of recognition, abuses of human rights, a state of economic crisis, corruption, a lack of freedom and democracy, and the respect for life. 

Rather than addressing the core reasons that prompted people to take to the streets, governments suppressed protest and tried to silence dissent by deploying brutal repression, mass arrests, and arbitrary incarceration in an attempt to threaten dissidents. Nonetheless, despite the dangers and difficulties, the people of the region continue to seek justice, democracy, and fundamental human rights. 

EXAMPLES ACROSS THE MENA REGION

In Bahrain, at least 3,000 people were arrested and five died from torture during their imprisonment, while detentions and sentences of human rights activists are countless.

Heinous atrocities continue to occur in Libya. Military leaders, guilty of significant human rights violations, are rewarded rather than held responsible. Despite the fear of kidnapping, detention, and even death by lawless militias, activists are increasingly mobilizing online and offline to demand their rights.

In Syria, a violent conflict has erupted as a result of the revolt and has displaced 6.7 million Syrians and forced 5.5 million to seek protection out of the territory. Since 2011, tens of thousands of Syrian opposition members, including demonstrators, political and human rights activists, and humanitarian aid personnel, have been jailed and forcefully silenced.

THE SITUATION A DECADE LATER

The reasons that triggered the Arab insurgencies have not been resolved ten years later, and the COVID-19 epidemic has exacerbated the MENA region’s instability. COVID-19, according to Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian politician, has benefited authoritarian regimes by preventing civilians from congregating in large numbers due to travel restrictions, crisis instructions, and fears about the virus’s transmission. On the other hand, the pandemic has worsened the economic difficulties that originally fuelled reform campaigns and paved the way for further protests. 

As a matter of fact, several MENA countries were already on the brink of collapse even before the COVID-19 outbreak. Arab Spring 2.0 is a fresh wave of protests in which people seek better living conditions because of regional governments’ systematic inability to address these underlying causes. And whilst the start of the pandemic has spared local authorities from greater protests, the pandemic has worsened the underlying socio-economic problems that prompted the uprisings in the first place. Uneven health coverage and a lack of social welfare for these countries will further worsen existing complaints and aggravate fury, which will ignite once social separation is no longer necessary.

In response to the crisis, governments declared states of emergency or passed new laws suppressing basic freedoms: people were arrested; medical employees who expressed a lack of protective and testing equipment were imprisoned for raising concerns about public health; authorities denied humanitarian aid; and lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, and transgender rights were severely restricted, with authorities detaining individuals for their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in torture and ill-treatment. People deprived of their liberty, who were already exposed to harsh, inhuman, and humiliating treatment, faced a new peril that made them even more vulnerable, particularly when confined in small areas where social distance is nearly impossible, as in prisons.

Protective measures, such as lockdowns and curfews, frequently resulted in excessive use of force by law enforcement officials and exposed institutional and procedural flaws that have increased the risk of torture and ill-treatment for countless children, women, and men across the area.

Human rights defenders persevered in their work despite the serious fear of incarceration, prosecution, travel sanctions, and other forms of punishment, even though they continue to pay a great price for their bravery.

FURTHER RESTRICTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MENA REGION

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 12 journalists have been assassinated whilst on duty in Egypt since 2011, making the country one of the worst jailers of journalists in the world. Furthermore, the number of imprisoned journalists in the country continues to climb, with an annual average of 25 since 2014.

Algerian authorities have limited freedom of association by imposing a 14-year detention penalty for collecting external funds with the intent of undermining Algeria's “fundamental interests”.

National authorities are also censoring the internet: the Egyptian and Palestinian governments have limited the use of certain websites, whilst the Iranian regime has prohibited social media platforms. Regimes have also spent a lot of money on costly digital surveillance equipment to identify human rights activists. In Egypt, judicial authorities placed at least five human rights activists on a five-year “terrorist list”.

REPRESSION OF MENA’S FEMALE ACTIVISTS

The continued repression of women’s rights activists outweighed the minor advancements in women’s rights obtained after years of activism. Women continue to suffer legal discrimination in areas such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. In Egypt, at least nine female TikTok influencers have been charged with “violating family standards”.

MINOR, BUT SIGNIFICANT, STEPS TAKEN 

Evaluating events in progress, the magnitude of which is unknown at this time, is difficult; however, it is possible to affirm that despite persistent impunity in the Middle East and North Africa, some minor but significant steps toward accountability for long-standing human rights offences have been taken. In most Arab countries, the future of human rights is uncertain, as regimes continue to stifle activities and advocates suffer in prisons.
Despite this, activists in the Middle East continue to work for social change through governmental reform, education reform, international pressure, and local activism, often at great personal danger.

Carlotta Viaggio is an International Relations graduate from Sapienza University. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Global Studies at LUISS Guido Carli. Her thesis is about the Arab Spring with and she has a particular interest in human rights in the MENA region, specifically concerning women and migrants.

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