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

Yıl 2021, , 777 - 789, 27.04.2021

Melek Saral

https://doi.org/10.21547/jss.817480

Cited By: 2

Öz

A decade after the uprisings in the MENA region, the outcomes of the transitions from authoritarian systems are obscure and transitional countries are facing many challenges in the matter of the improvement of human rights practices in the region. This article looks at the transformation in the field of human rights after those 2011 uprisings and addresses the question of why the transitional process in the MENA region, which held the promise of the advancement of human rights, failed to improve human rights practices. It explores the impact of continuity and change in institutional frameworks and actors in Egypt and Tunisia on the protection of human rights during the transitional process, focusing mainly on constitution-making processes, transitional justice, and polarisation among various political actors with different ideological and political backgrounds.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Middle East and North Africa, human rights, transitional process, Egypt, Tunisia

Orta Doğu ve Kuzey Afrika Bölgesindeki Geçiş Süreci ve İnsan Haklarının Gelişimi: Mısır ve Tunus Örnekleri

Öz

Orta Doğu ve Kuzey Afrika'daki ayaklanmalardan on yıl sonra, geçiş süreci belirsizliğini korumaktadır ve bölgedeki geçiş ülkeleri insan hakları uygulamalarının iyileştirilmesi konusunda birçok zorlukla karşı karşıya bulunmaktadır. Bu makale, Orta Doğu ve Kuzey Afrika Bölgesindeki 2011 ayaklanmalarından sonra insan haklarının gelişimine bakacak ve insan haklarının iyileştirilmesi vaadini taşıyan geçiş sürecinin neden başarısız olduğu sorusuna cevap vermeye çalışacaktır. 2011 ayaklanmalarından sonra Mısır ve Tunus'taki anayasa yapım sürecine, geçiş dönemi adaletine ve farklı ideolojik ve siyasi aktörler arasındaki kutuplaşmaya odaklanan bu makale, geçiş sürecinde Mısır ve Tunus'taki kurumsal çerçeve ve aktörlerin süreklilik ve değişimlerinin, insan haklarının korunmasına yönelik etkisini inceleyecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Ortadoğu ve Kuzey Afrika Bölgesi, İnsan hakları, Geçiş dönemi, Mısır, Tunus

Kaynakça

• Amnesty International. (2018). Public Statement. Tunisia: attempts to obstruct work of truth and dignity commission undermine victims’ rights and threaten transitional justice. MDE 30/8221/2018. https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE3082212018ENGLISH.pdf
• Andrieu, K. (2016). Confronting the dictatorial past in Tunisia: human rights and the politics of victimhood in transitional justice discourses since 2011. Human Rights Quarterly. 38 (2), 261-293.
• Asseburg, M. & Wimmen, H. (2016). Dynamics of transformation, elite change and new social mobilization in the Arab world, Mediterranean Politics, 21 (1), 1-22
• Bellin, Eva. (2011). Lessons from the jasmine and Nile revolutions: possibilities of political transformation in the Middle East. Middle East Brief, no. 50.
• Bernard-Maugiron, N. (2016). State powers and constitution drafting processes in post-revolutionary transitions in North Africa. In S. Florensa (ed.) The Arab transitions in a changing world. building democracies in light of international experiences. 118-130. IEMed.
• Bouziane, M., Harders, C., & Hoffman, A. (2013). Analyzing politics beyond the center in an age of transformation, In M. Bouziane, C. Harders, & A. Hoffmann (Eds) local politics and contemporary transformations in the Arab World: governance beyond the center. 1-21. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Brown, J. N. & Dunne, M. (2013). Egypt’s draft constitution rewards the military and judiciary. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
• Colombo, S. (2018). Political and institutional transition in North Africa: Egypt and Tunisia in comparative perspective. New York: Routledge.
• Darin, E. W. J. (2015). Beyond constituent assemblies and referenda: assessing the legitimacy of the Arab spring constitutions in Egypt and Tunisia. Wake Forest Law Review 50, 1007–56.
• Florensa, S. (2016). Building democracies in the light of international experiences: a critical and demanding challenge for the Arab world. In S. Florensa (ed.) The Arab Transitions in a Changing World. Building Democracies in Light of International Experiences. 9-37. IEMed.
• Garreton, M. A. 1994. Human rights in process of democratisation. Journal of Latin American Studies, 26 (1), 221-234.
• Gomez, J. & Robin R. (2014). Introduction: democracy and human rights in Southeast Asia, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 33 (3), 3–17.
• Guazzone, L. (2013). Ennahda Islamists and the test of government in Tunisia, The International Spectator, 48 (4), 30-50. Hassan, M. & Lorch, J. & Ranko, A. (2019). Explaining divergent transformation paths in Tunisia and Egypt: The role of inter-elite trust, Mediterranean Politics, DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2019.1614819
• Horowitz, S. & Schnabel, A. (2004). Human rights and societies in transition: International context and sources of variation. In S. Horowitz & A. Schnabel (eds.) Human rights and societies in transition: causes, consequences, responses. 3-27. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
• Horowitz, S. (2004). Causes and consequences of variation in post-communist human rights practices. In S. Horowitz & A. Schnabel (eds.) Human rights and societies in transition: causes, consequences, responses. 242-266. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
• Larbi, H. (2016). Rewriting the Arab social contract. toward inclusive development and politics in the Arab world. Middle East Initiative. Study Group Report. Harvard Kennedy School. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
• Mahmoudi, S. (2016). International human rights law as a framework for emerging constitutions in Arab countries. In R. Grote & R. Tilmann (eds) Constitutionalism, human rights and Islam after the Arab spring. 535-545. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Marks, L. M. (2014). Convince, coerce or compromise? Ennahda’s approach to Tunisia’s constitution. Brookings Doha Center Research Paper. Number 10.
• Mokhtari, S. (2015). Human rights and power amid protest and change in the Arab world. Third World Quarterly 36(6), 1207-1221.
• Monshipouri, M. (2014). Democratic uprisings in the new Middle East. youth, technology, human rights, and US foreign policy. London: Paradigm Publishers.
• Netterstrom, L. K. (2015). The Islamists compromise in Tunisia, Journal of Democracy 26 (4). O'Donnell, G. & Schmitter, C. P. & Whitehead, L. (Eds). (1986). Transitions from authoritarian rule: comparative perspectives. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Panizza, F. (1995). Human rights in the processes of transition and consolidation of democracy in Latin America. Political Studies, XLIII, 168-188.
• Pickard, D. (2015). Al-Nahda: Moderation and compromise in Tunisia’s constitutional bargain In J. O. Frosini & F. Biagi (eds) Political and constitutional transitions in north africa. actors and factors, 4-33. London: Routledge.
• Quamar, M. (2015). Tunisia: presidential and parliamentary elections, 2014. Contemporary Review of the Middle East. 2(3), 269-288.
• Richardson-Little, N. (2015). Human rights as myth and history: between the revolutions of 1989 and the Arab spring. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 23 (2-3), 151-166.
• Roll, S. (2016). Managing change: how Egypt’s military leadership shaped the transformation. Mediterranean Politics, 21 (1), 23-43.
• Röder J. T. (2016). State control over the military or military control over the state a comparison of selected Arab constitutions. In R. Grote & R. Tilmann (eds) Constitutionalism, human rights and Islam after the Arab spring. 283-323. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Saral, M. (2019). The protection of human rights in transitional Tunisia, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, 16 (1), 1-26
• Schmitter, C. P. & Sika, N. (2017). Democratization in the Middle East and North Africa: A more ambidextrous process? Mediterranean Politics, 22(4), 443-463
• Sultany, N. (2017). Law and revolution: legitimacy and constitutionalism after the Arab Spring, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Teitel, G. R. (2000).Transitional justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Tian, W. (2014). Middle East geopolitical situation in transition. Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (in Asia), 8(2), 96-120.
• Turner, C. (2015). Transitional constitutionalism and the case of the Arab Spring. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 64 (2), 267-291.
• Yardımcı-Geyikçi, Ş. & Tür, Ö. (2018). Rethinking the Tunisian miracle: a party politics view Democratization, 25 (5), 787-803.