Human rights: West’s moral imperative

By DR. KHALID ALNOWAISER | ARAB NEWS

Human rights: West’s moral imperative

WHEN I refer to the West, I am only speaking of Western governments and not their people.

There are so many Westerners (regardless of their religion, background, upbringing and cultural orientation) who are advocates of universal human rights.  Yet, they realize that human rights are violated daily in every part of the world, including their own nations.  I have great respect and admiration for Westerners, having spent the most enjoyable and productive time of my life in the United States and the United Kingdom.

However, I am compelled to write about the subject of human rights because of recent political events in such Arab countries as Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.  I am an unapologetic human rights activist who dreams of humane treatment of all peoples wherever they may live. It is no surprise to see dictator after dictator losing political control when their countries continue to tolerate repression, corruption, and human rights violations.

Yet, the question remains:  Who is responsible for allowing these dictators to remain in power and survive for decades while human rights are violated day after day? Although the answer is not simple, it is certain that the people who subject to these dictatorships and the West bear joint responsibility. However, citizens of these repressive regimes really are powerless given the unbelievable security forces that each dictator possesses and the fact that many are brainwashed by dictators who, without exception, control education, culture, media and the political and economic milieu.

Instead, it is the West that is primarily responsible for human rights violations, because these dictators would never survive without its tacit support. And it is precisely Western governments (such as the US) that are the current powerful international players with most of the world's political, economic, military, and intelligence resources.

A stark example is President Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt for three decades. We all know that Mubarak was a strong ally of the United States and other Western nations. There is no doubt that the West was fully aware of his brutality and dictatorship from the moment he became president in 1981. Now, we discover that Mubarak hid as much as $75 billion overseas, money he stole from the Egyptian people. Where did it go? To the moon or to those banks in the West offering secret accounts immune from public disclosure? Doesn't this corruption always lead to more poverty and grievances and support for repressive regimes, thus resulting in human rights violations?  Mubarak is just one of the many who repressed their people while the West simply looked the other way. Adopting such an attitude is completely immoral and should be condemned.  Although President Barack Obama's historic Cairo speech in 2009 was a welcome change from the position taken by previous US administrations, most people in the Mideast want action to match these lofty words.

This discussion invariably leads us to consider another important issue. Why does the West support or at least tolerate such dictators when they are in power but as soon as they lose power, it starts talking about human rights?  Isn't this a clear case of double standard?

Although one may argue that the West is justified in focusing on its own security and economic interests, the truth is that such an attitude is shortsighted. National interest and human rights go together and are two sides of the same coin. By ignoring one, you are compromising the other. The current political turmoil in the Mideast bears this out.

It is sad to read reports issued by some Western human rights organizations addressing less important issues in the region while neglecting to address the root causes of such violations.  What must be said is that the West is in real partnership with such dictators and that partnership produces more and more human rights violations.

After everything that is happening in the Arab world, it is hoped that the West will wake up and realize that no long-term national interest, however powerful or important, can be achieved unless basic human rights are defended and respected.

So, how will the United States and other Western nations adopt policies to defend human rights? Are they going, for instance, to stop accepting any money stolen from a nation by its dictator and consider it similar to money laundering? Are they indeed going to freeze the accounts of dictators now in power? Are they going to take appropriate action to halt human rights violations or simply wait until powerless people are murdered and they can no longer ignore the situation? Or is the West going to continue to pursue its political objectives by dealing with dictatorial regimes and then hypocritically lecture the world on the need to protect human rights?

It is time for the West to decide.

— Dr. Khalid Alnowaiser is a Saudi lawyer and columnist. He can be reached at: khalid@lfkan.com. Twitter (kalnowaiser)