Lebanon

Launching of the Arab Human Development Report 2009 "Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries"

 “Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries” is the title of the fifth Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) launched on Tuesday 21st July 2009 in Beirut’s Grand Serail under the high patronage and in the presence of H.E. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

The AHDR 2009 argues that the trend in the region has focused more on the security of the state than on the security of the people. It shows that human security is a prerequisite for development, and that the widespread absence of human security in Arab countries undermines people’s options. Based on these arguments, this report analyzes many issues related to occupation and military interventions, authority of the State and its security measures, volatile economy, damage of the environment, impact of climate changes, insecurity of vulnerable groups, poverty, hunger and providing health care.

Human security in the Arab countries is often threatened by unjust political, social, and economic structures; by competition for power and resources among fragmented social groups; and, in some cases, by the destructive impacts of external military intervention. In order to improve the human security in the Arab countries, the report sketches multiple ways like strengthening the rule of law, safeguarding the rights of women, tackling poverty, boosting public health, protecting the environment, and putting an end to hunger and to armed conflict.
During the launching ceremony of this report, the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora expressed the importance of coexistence that doesn’t weaken our belonging to the Arab world.

On the other hand, Siniora focused on the issue of security in the Arab region, mainly in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“Putting an end to occupation and to armed conflicts in Arab states and providing adequate solutions for a fair and final solution to the suffering of the Palestinian people are basic and essential conditions for the security of the Arab population.”

In their opening speeches, Ms Amat El Alim Alsoswa, Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States, Dr. Clovis Maksoud, member of the counseling team of the report , Mr. Abdel Rahman El Solh from the Arab League, presented and analyzed the 2009 AHDR report.

Ms. Alsoswa explained that “the report is intended to discuss the fundamental challenges to progress in the Arab region: the challenges to human security, to undertake a broad analysis of the factors threatening human security in the Arab region and to focus on the security of the citizen as an entry point and fundamental condition for the security of the State.”

The report would have a “tremendous impact in the Arab countries and all over the world.” said Ms. Alsoswa before explaining that this report is the fruit of the dedicated research undertaken for over two years by a number of Arab writers and thinkers and a core team or researchers.

Inspired by UNDP’s 1994 Global Human Development Report on human security, the present study proposes that the answers lie in the fragility of the region’s political, social, economic and environmental structures, in it s lack of people –centered development policies and in its vulnerability to outside intervention. The previous past reports argued that severe deficits in freedom, women’s empowerment, and knowledge were formidable barriers to progress and development in the region.
Professor Clovis Maksoud, member of the counseling team of the report, explained that the Arab Human Development Report emphasizes the relation between the security of the citizen and the security of the State.

Ambassador Abdelrahman el-Solh criticized the report, saying that it was too general and jumped up into results without offering any deep analysis.

Following the opening ceremony, a session was held in the presence of Ms. Alsoswa and Mr. Ayman Al Sayyad, editor in chief of the magazine “ woujohat Nazar” to discuss the human security in the Arab countries and all obstacles that face the social, economical and environmental development in the area.

The discussions on the different themes of the report also took place on the following day, where participants discussed the issues of personal insecurity of vulnerable groups, the challenges to economic security, occupation, and military intervention.

These two-day dialogues, called “ Beirut dialogues”, will also be held in different Arab regions, holding public debates in partnership with leading Arab institutions to broaden the discussion and support the Arab peoples’ and state’ shared process of achieving consensus on the priorities for human security in the Arab countries.