The Arab world is experiencing a major political turmoil that would hopefully lead to greater emphasis on the right of the people to decide on the form and components of their political system, and on the process of determining who their leaders should be and how long should they stay in power.
Peaceful political, social and economic changes benefit from proper circulation of information, as well as debate, on laws, government policies, programs and services. Assertion of such changes through “people power” usually occurs in the context of a long history of government abuse of power that caused human rights violations.
Accountability of the government and their leaders for the root causes of the present political turmoil is a major issue in this regard.
But beyond the call for change in political leadership is the need to call for a wide-ranging review of laws and government systems from the perspective of human rights protection, promotion and realization. What legal and institutional measures would address political repression, social exclusion and economic marginalization? Finding rights-based measures and putting them into practice constitute a much more difficult challenge to undertake. West Asian societies, or any society for that matter, ought to be self- critical in responding to these calls.