scholarly journals Spatializing Memory and Justice in Transformation Processes

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Susanne Buckley-Zistel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Transformation Processes

Abstract This chapter asks what processes of dealing with the past have been set in motion and how they relate to the search for justice and the quest for remembrance on a more global scale. In the aftermath of the “Arab Spring,” the affected countries have been going through transitions of various forms that are significantly re-configuring the MENA region. In this context, a number of new civil society actors, political elites, and international norm entrepreneurs are engaging with the lengthy histories of repression in the respective countries as well as with the violence that occurred during the Arab Spring in order to reckon with the legacy of human rights abuses (Sriram, Transitional justice in the middle East and North Africa, Hurst, London, 2017). These transitions to justice are not without obstacles and challenges, though. The objective of her chapter is therefore not to tell the stories of various transitional justice and memory projects in post-Arab Spring countries, but to situate such practices in time and space.

Linking Transitional Justice and Human Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Waltz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
Economic Injustice ◽  
The Arab Spring

Chapter 3, by Susan Waltz, addresses several of these challenges as well as other themes in a distinct way, drawing upon experiences before and after the Arab Spring from several countries in the region including Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. She first draws attention to the apparent gaps between a set of universal human rights standards enshrined in international treaties, the practice of transitional justice with its focus on gross human rights abuses, and the expectations which have been raised of transitional justice, including of addressing questions of economic injustice. She then interrogates different facets of the problem of “impact” of transitional justice.

Geopolitics of Conflicts and Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
AKM Ahsan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Refugee Policy ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Border Conflicts ◽  
The Arab Spring

Geopolitically intertwined and strategically significant refugee policy in the MENA region is frequently analyzed in light of well-documented ethnic, religious, class, and border conflicts. However, the policy is also inexorably linked to the broader geopolitics of the global refugee protection regime and discourse. This article analyzes the complex relationship between geopolitics, domestic political dynamics, and their attendant crises in the MENA region. The complex set of political shockwaves of the Arab Spring induced massive mobility of people which may compound incipient political tensions between and within MENA states.

The Scope and Boundaries of Transitional Justice in the Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher K. Lamont
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
State Building ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
State Identity ◽  
The Arab Spring

Chapter 5, by Christopher K. Lamont, further elaborates on critical debates regarding the scope of transitional justice processes. Drawing upon the Tunisian transition, he observes that one of the important debates has been over the appropriate temporal and substantive scope of any transitional justice mechanisms. He argues that transitional justice literature may not understand these debates well, not only because it has not until recently engaged with the MENA region, but because the former literature has been driven by legalism, while debates in Tunisia (and perhaps other countries in the region) over transitional justice issues have been driven by state-building contestation. He suggests that this is partly to do with the fact that in this region justice is understood as more than legal justice, also encompassing Islamic conceptions of social justice, and because decisions relate to political contestations about state identity.

Civil society and social movements

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmelo Pérez-Beltrán ◽  
Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Organisational Structures ◽  
Charity Work ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter establishes a general framework that enables to assess the situation of civil society in the MENA region, before and after the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring undermined many of the theories that dwelt on the depoliticisation of civil society, its inability to influence the political agenda and the customary use made of it as an instrument of authoritarian regimes. Although this activism appeared to take on new forms, it was not spontaneously generated, but included an accumulation of baggage from the past, in constant relationship and tension with the state; hence, along with associations concerned with charity work and development, there also existed another more critical and politically committed type of organisation, in which the theory of the persistence of authoritarianism had not shown sufficient interest. Likewise, the Arab Spring questioned the institutionalised, structured, organisational nature of civil society that transitology usually supports. During the uprisings, none of the traditional or formal civil society organisations came to the fore, either in their interventionist (NGOs) or their most contestatory dimensions (human rights organisations, Islamist groups, or more politicised platforms). Thus, the chapter shows that it is necessary to go beyond a certain reductionist view of what civil society is and to propose another concept, much more dynamic, creative and horizontalist that involves not only hierarchical organisational structures, but also other spaces of mobilisation in which the citizenry can express its social, political and economic commitment.

Attitudes of Students in the GCC Region towards the Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Naufal ◽  
Ismail Genc ◽  
Carlos Vargas-Silva
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The Arab Spring

The purpose of this chapter is to present new empirical research on the Arab Spring and, specifically, to focus on the attitudes of residents of one country in the Middle East towards the Arab Spring. This research was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been one of the main migrant destinations in the world for the last two decades. This allows for comparisons regarding attitudes towards the Arab Spring across individuals from different regions of origin such as GCC, South Asia, and Western countries. The attitudes of university students are important because the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has experienced a substantial increase in the 17 to 23 years of age population. Existing reports suggest that, by far, those involved in Arab Spring protests were young individuals. The analysis places particular emphasis on the correlation of attitudes towards the Arab Spring with three key aspects: religiousness, attachment to the GCC countries, and attachment to country of origin.

Constitutionalism, Human Rights, and Islam after the Arab Spring

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grote Rainer ◽  
Röder Tilmann J
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Transformation Processes

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact that new and draft constitutions and amendments—such as those in Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia—have had on the transformative processes that drive constitutionalism in Arab countries. The authors aim to identify and analyze the key issues facing constitutional law and democratic development in Islamic states, and offer an in-depth examination of the relevance of the transformation processes for the development and future of constitutionalism in Arab countries. Using an encompassing and multi-faceted approach, this book explores underlying trends and currents that have been pivotal to the Arab Spring, while identifying and providing a forward looking view of constitution making in the Arab world. In its analysis, this book also includes country-specific case studies on the relationship between Islam and the rule of law and human rights, within contemporary Islamic societies and offers an in-depth comparison of Arab Spring constitutionalism to the models of constitutionalism around the world.

Effect of the Arab Spring on Stabilization Capacity of the MENA Monarchies

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110173
Author(s):  
Andrey V Korotayev ◽  
Alina A Khokhlova
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
The Face ◽  
Mass Protest ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Negative Predictor

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after the Arab Spring, monarchy has turned out to be a far stronger negative predictor of destabilization than it was before 2011. For the MENA, the period after 2010 can be subdivided into three periods: a mass protests period (2011–2012), the period of explosive growth of radical Islamist activities (2013–2016), and the second mass protest period (since 2016). Our analysis demonstrates that monarchies’ stabilization capacity was preserved in 2011–2012 and grew substantially during 2013–2016, as MENA monarchies turned out to be more resilient in the face of the outbreak of radical Islamism in the region.

scholarly journals New Public Sphere dan Perkembangan Teknologi Media Sosial di Kawasan MENA (Middle East and North Africa): Studi Kasus Peranan Media InternasionalterhadapPembentukan Social Networking dalam Egyptian Revolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajeng Rizqi Rahmanillah
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Arab Spring

<p align="center"><strong> </strong></p><p align="center"><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p align="center"><strong> </strong></p><p><em>Massive movement of the Egyptian people, called the Egyptian Revolution, is part of a wave of democratization of the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa.The purpose of this essay is to provide information about the influence of new public sphere and media technology, to the civil society movement in the region. The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of society. This essay is a qualitative study using the case study method. The results of this study showed that the development of global communication media has a significant influence on the civil society to develop their skills in using information technology. This has led to the Arab Spring in Tunisia became a successful spark that triggered the revolution in Egypt. Phase emergence of Reformers in the Arab Spring wave of democratization in Egypt indicate that the movement of the Reformers strongly associated with one of the instruments of mass communication become public means of expression, to spread the idea, and eventually forms a networking in a short time</em>.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Keywords: New Public Sphere, social media, social movement, egyption revolution</em></strong></p>

scholarly journals Internet Revolution or Just Fitna: Towards the Tenth Anniversary of the Arab Spring

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-542
Author(s):  
Aleksey Mikhailovich Vasiliev ◽  
Natalia Aleksandrovna Zherlitsina
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Arab States ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the tenth anniversary of the revolutionary events in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), called the Arab Spring. The relevance of the study of the consequences of political transformations in Arab countries is due to the incompleteness of the modernization processes in such areas as public administration, justice and human rights, which gave rise to the discontent of the active part of society, which had initiated the protests. The idea of the research was to compare the causes of popular uprisings, the methods of political struggle, the main actors and the results of the Arab Spring for most of the countries affected by this process. Particular attention has been paid to the growing popularity of Islamist political forces, which have given their answers and pseudo-answers to acute societal issues. With the help of comparative and typological analysis, the peculiarities of different models of political development in the Middle East and North African countries have been studied. Over the past decade, world science has accumulated a significant layer of research on the Arab Spring phenomenon. The authors have taken into account a wide range of opinions of scholars from Europe, the United States, Turkey, Israel, and the Arab states. Aiming to assess the political transformation of the MENA region over the past 10 years, this study analyzes changes in the position of external actors such as Russia and the USA. The authors conclude that the influence of the US as a whole in the region has decreased, while the influence of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia has increased. Israel has managed to strengthen its own security by establishing normal relations with a number of Arab states in the region. The popular unrest that erupted again in Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Algeria, and Tunisia in 2018-2021 was objectively caused by the same conditions that had given rise to the Arab Spring and with the same uncertain results so far.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice in the Middle East and North Africa

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Heads Of State

The social and political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, designated the “Arab Spring” because the most visible ruptures appeared in the spring of 2011, drew global attention not only because they presented broad-based political protest against regimes which were long- entrenched, whether authoritarian or monarchical. They were landmark events because they led to the removal of several heads of state, and prompted discussions of institutional reform. Notably, they also entailed a broad range of human rights claims, both those related to abuses by prior regimes of civil and political rights and bodily integrity, but also of socio-economic rights. In short, they not only put transitional justice on the political agenda in a region of the world where it was seldom discussed (despite limited experiments in Morocco), but also put forward a broader view of transitional justice than that which has traditionally been implemented. However, many of these transitions have since stalled, leaving transitional justice similarly stalled, stunted, or manipulated for political ends. These phenomena are not unique to the MENA region, but rather experiences from elsewhere with limited or frozen transition may be informative to the region. The chapters in this volume, written largely by experts in the region, draw upon pre- and post-Arab Spring use of transitional justice mechanisms in a range of countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, and Bahrain.

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