This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got a chilly reception when she told a conference of Arab leaders in Qatar of the urgent need for “political reforms that will create the space young people are demanding, to participate in public affairs and have a meaningful role in the decisions that shape their lives.”
Clinton could be waiting a long time for those reforms. Democracy and liberty are scarce in the Middle East. That’s the bad news.
The worse news: Both commodities are getting scarcer, not just in this region but elsewhere.
Every year, the organization Freedom House assesses the state of human rights around the world, and after the burst of progress that began two decades ago, Freedom House has seen a retreat. In 2010, more than two dozen countries suffered a decline in the freedom enjoyed by their citizens, and the number of electoral democracies fell to 115, compared with 123 five years ago.
Why would Clinton single out Arab nations? Partly because they lie at a strategic crossroads, making potential political upheaval a matter of acute concern beyond their borders. Partly because many of them are also afflicted with aggravating problems, notably pervasive corruption.
And partly because they have consistently compiled the worst overall record. “The Middle East and North Africa remained the region with the lowest level of freedom in 2010, continuing its multiyear decline from an already-low democratic baseline,” says Freedom House.
Not that other regions have room to gloat. Asia has China, home to an imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner, and North Korea, a totalitarian hell. Latin America has the Cuban dictatorship and its eager student, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Africa has Ethiopia and Djibouti, which slid so far that Freedom House has moved them from the “partly free” category to “not free.” Europe has Belarus, where dictator Alexander Lukashenko has lately employed brutal methods that bring back memories of another tyrant who ruled the place — Josef Stalin.
Clinton’s speech may serve the commendable goals of disturbing the powerful and heartening the powerless. But ultimately, there is only so much the United States and other democracies can do to dislodge the many despots who still reign around the world. Human rights are a plant that needs hospitable soil and careful nurturing to flourish. The most effective impetus for change comes from ordinary people — like those who have turned out in Tunisia for mass protests that Friday forced the authoritarian president to leave office and flee the country.
Tunisia had one of the most repressive governments in the Arab world, but it collapsed when its people finally got tired of being abused. Leaders should take that as evidence that the appeal of human rights is powerful, and that no part of the world can be forever immune.
