Human Rights Watch criticizes treatment of women and minorities in the Middle East

Rights group slams treatment of Mideast minorities

CAIRO — A New York-based human rights organization criticized the governments of five Middle Eastern countries Tuesday, including close U.S.-allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia, for their treatment of women and minorities.

Human Rights Watch released the chapters of its 2010 World Report that deal with Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen, accusing them of poor treatment of women, minorities and refugees.

“Middle Eastern governments need to recognize that the rights of minorities, refugees, and stateless persons need greater protections,” the group’s Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement.

The release of these latest chapters of the annual report follows Sunday’s description of the post-election crackdown in Iran and the mistreatment of migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates.

The chapters described a pattern of discrimination against minorities in the region, including Saudi Arabia’s treatment of its 2 million-strong Shiite population and Syria’s repression of its Kurds.

In Lebanon, the report criticized the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, while asserting that the Yemeni government committed violations in its battle with Shiite rebels in the north.

Tensions with Shiites in Saudi Arabia reached new heights in 2009 when clashes between Shiite pilgrims and security guards in the city of Medina resulted in scores of arrests. At least one Shiite mosque was closed down in the kingdom.

The report did note that King Abdullah had replaced conservatives in the religious establishment and judiciary, but saw little overall improvement in human rights, especially for women.

“Authorities continue to systematically suppress, or fail to protect, the rights of fourteen million Saudi women and girls,” the report said.

Just to the south, in Yemen, Human Rights Watch described a severe deterioration in the rule of law as a government facing opposition on several fronts arrested journalists and activists.

With a Shiite rebellion in the north and a southern separatist movement, Yemen’s government has conducted sweeping arrest campaigns against any suspected sympathizers of either movement, charging many with “contesting the unity of the state.”

In Syria, meanwhile, a chronically poor rights situation worsened, according to the report, with some 45 people arrested for membership in unauthorized political groups or those with links to the Kurds or Muslim Brotherhood.

In contrast to the other countries, the report saw no significant decline in the human rights situation in Jordan, though it did note that criticizing the king still carried heavy penalties, and perpetrators of “honor killings” were receiving lenient sentences.

So-called honor killings involve slayings of women — often by male relatives — for perceived slights to their families’ honor, such as accusations of infidelity or of having romantic relationships outside of marriage.