Transitional Process and Human Rights Developments in the MENA Region: The Cases of Egypt and Tunisia

Under pressure from sedentary majority populations, nomadic peoples face serious threats to their cultural survival and livelihood. Nomadic groups have long faced suspicion and discrimination—as illustrated by the ongoing marginalization of European Roma and Travellers, the Maasai of Tanzania and Kenya, and the Bedouin of the MENA region—and modern societies tend to see human rights, including the basic rights of freedom of movement and property rights, through a lens that privileges settlement. Indeed, nomadic peoples are often viewed with suspicion and excluded from the citizenry because they move “too much” and do not conform to majority views related to settlement, land use, and community membership. This bias leaves nomadic peoples without functioning citizenship in regard to state governments, who fail to understand their basic needs and perspectives. Resulting rights abuses center not only on rights to land and natural resources but also on cultural and political expression.

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The Transitional Justice Model in Colombia vis-à-vis the Inter-American Human Rights SystemAmidst the Conventionality Control and the National Margin of Appreciation

Constitutionalism ◽

10.1093/oso/9780192896759.003.0016 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 331-350

Author(s):

Juana I. Acosta-López ◽

Cindy Vanessa Espitia Murcia

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Integrated System ◽

Transitional Process ◽

European Court ◽

Margin Of Appreciation ◽

Lasting Peace ◽

Justice Model

This chapter assesses the international consequences of the transitional justice model in Colombia. It demonstrates that the Colombian transitional justice model, and particularly the integrated system for truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition, are likely to successfully withstand the 'conventionality control' by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICtHR). The chapter then presents a model to be used by the Inter-American organs when analysing the Colombian transitional justice model. In seeking to accommodate the needs of the transitional process with the demands for justice, the model proposes a harmonizing technique between the notions of 'conventionality control', developed by the Inter-American Court since 2006, and the 'national margin of appreciation' doctrine, developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This harmonizing approach would allow States to implement the most adequate mechanisms for the consolidation of a lasting peace scenario.

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Taxation of Beverages and Sweetened Products in Morocco: A Major Achievement and a Model to Follow In the Mena Region.

Journal of Medical and Surgical Research ◽

10.46327/msrjg.1.000000000000176 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 817-820

Author(s):

Jamal Belkhadir ◽

Mostafa Brahimi ◽

Hassan Aguenaou ◽

Jaafar Heikel ◽

Hicham El Berri ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Working Group ◽

Sugar Content ◽

Morbidity And Mortality ◽

Cultural Dimension ◽

National Council ◽

Consumption Tax ◽

Mena Region ◽

Sugary Drinks ◽

Obesity And Diabetes

The analysis of the various reports of the epidemiological situation of obesity and diabetes in Morocco with in particular the reports of the WHO, the High Commission for Planning of Morocco (HCP) and the report of the American Mc Kinsey Study Bureau in 2014, shows a sharp increase in diabetes, obesity and their morbidity and mortality. With a Moroccan population of 35 million inhabitants in 2017, the number of people with diabetes (2.5 million), pre-diabetes (2.4 million), obesity (3.6 million), overweight (10 million including 63% of women and 16% of children) is alarming. The consequences in terms of morbidity and mortality and direct and indirect health costs through reduced productivity for the economy of Morocco and for society as a whole are very high. Total annual expenditure related to obesity amounts to $ 2.4 billion, or 3% of Morocco's GDP. The causes of this increase in obesity and diabetes are closely linked to profound changes in lifestyle: high-calorie diet rich in fast sugars, reduction in physical activity, etc. This is how it is demonstrated that too much consumption of sugary drinks is harmful to weight maintenance, metabolic balance and cardiovascular health. Conversely in many experiments around the world, the number of people with overweight and a risk of diabetes decreases significantly when the reduction of refined sugars is carried out by several preventive measures including increasing the tax on sodas, juices and other sugary drinks. The members of the Working Group who have been working together for several years in Morocco on the “Taxation of sweet products” within the framework of the Moroccan League for the Fight against Diabetes and the Moroccan Society of Nutrition, Health and Environment, have carried out multiple actions advocacy and sensitization with the government, the ministry of health, the parliament, the university, civil society and the media. The soda tax was finally adopted by the Moroccan Parliament in the 2019 finance bill. A first in the Middle East and North Africa region. In December 2019, a new acquisition was made during the discussion of the Finance Law Project (FLP) 2020 by the introduction of a progressive Internal Consumption Tax (ICT) on sugary drinks in proportion to their sugar concentration. The aim is to encourage manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of sugary drinks and energy drinks to avoid over-taxation. On the other hand, the support recently given in 2020 by the National Council of Human Rights of Morocco to this tax constitutes a very large acquisition, with a new institutional and socio-cultural dimension of human rights for the preservation health in Morocco. Members of the working group will continue their efforts to extend this tax to all products containing a significant amount of sugar. The same is true for other toxic products such as salt, fat and tobacco. Keywords: Diabetes, Obesity, Prevention, Tax soda, Morocco

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Between Faith and State

Sites of Pluralism ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190052713.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 23-42

Author(s):

Kathleen A. Cavanaugh

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Middle East ◽

Public Sphere ◽

International Law ◽

Mena Region ◽

Faith And Reason ◽

The Public ◽

Political Transformations ◽

Legal Discourses ◽

The Public Sphere

This chapter examines the politics of law that are mapped out in the various trends of analysis within both Islamic and international law. Disrupting the notion of a "fixedness" in these legal discourses and reimagining each in their political self is a critical first step in addressing the challenge--one that preoccupies much of the literature that looks at Islam and rights--as to how to open a space in the human rights project where faith and reason can be accommodated. In undertaking this task, the chapter discusses how the human rights project engages with religion in the public sphere before turning to how these concepts have been engaged where Islam and human rights intersect generally, and then specifically when applied to states in the Middle East. The second part of the chapter focuses on the plural readings of Islamic formulations of law and details the trends of analysis within political transformations that have unfolded (and continue to unfold) across the MENA region in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring.

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Committee on Academic Freedom: Current Concerns and Initiatives

Review of Middle East Studies ◽

10.1017/rms.2018.95 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 353-355

Author(s):

Laurie A. Brand

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

North America ◽

Academic Freedom ◽

Mission Statement ◽

State Violence ◽

Educational Institutions ◽

Mena Region ◽

Academic Researchers ◽

Academic Lectures ◽

Current Concerns

According to its Mission Statement, MESA's Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) is tasked with monitoring violations of academic freedom in the MENA region as well as in North America. Violations of academic freedom are often understood as comprising governmental attempts to prevent scholars from conducting scholarly research, publishing their findings, delivering academic lectures, and traveling to international scholarly meetings. However, CAF often addresses cases in which professors and academic researchers irrespective of discipline are harassed, persecuted, dismissed or detained for their peaceful professional or personal activities, particularly if they encourage respect for human rights. In some instances, the committee has also protested state violence that has deliberately targeted educational institutions’ buildings or campuses.

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Spatializing Memory and Justice in Transformation Processes

Re-Configurations - Politik und Gesellschaft des Nahen Ostens ◽

10.1007/978-3-658-31160-5_2 ◽

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.

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