Group raps Lebanon, Jordan for mistreating Palestinians

Last update - 18:49 26/01/2010

By Reuters

The governments of Jordan and Lebanon failed to adequately protect the rights of Palestinians, a new report by the group Human Rights Watch charged on Tuesday.

Some governments in the Middle East suppressed efforts to promote human rights and failed to take measures to protect the rights of migrant workers in 2009, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

The group said in its annual report released in Beirut countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia missed opportunities on women's rights while human rights activists in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen paid a heavy price for their activities.

Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen failed to tackle frequent incidents of torture. It accused Yemen of committing violations in the civil war in the north and the social unrest in the south.

Lebanon disregarded the plight of some of 200,000 registered Palestinian refugees living in 12 Palestinian camps, it said.

"The year 2009 was one of the missed opportunities for women and migrants in the region," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said. "For human rights defenders, their small space for maneuvering shrank even further."

The rights group urged Saudi Arabia to release long-term detainees or try them in fair proceedings, dismantle the system of male legal guardianship over women and to stop discriminating against its Shi'ite citizens.

Human Rights Watch called on Jordan to stop stripping those of Palestinian origin of their Jordanian nationality.

The group said Arab countries responded weakly to calls to curb violence against women. Perpetrators of "honor killing" in Jordan and Syria still benefit from legal provisions that mitigate their punishments.

It said domestic abuse went largely unpunished in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Women in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia cannot confer their nationality either on foreign spouses or their children.

It called on Lebanon to amend its citizenship law to ensure all Lebanese women, regardless of the nationality of their husbands, can pass on citizenship to their children and husbands.

Hundreds of thousands of women from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and the Philippines work as maids in Arab states, many of which exclude domestic workers from protection in their labor laws.

The rights group said some governments adopted some measures to reduce the abuse but did not enforce them. It said migrant domestic workers faced exploitation and abuse by employers, including excessive work hours, non-payment of wages and restrictions on their liberty.

The group said Syria must form a commission to address the human rights grievances of the Kurdish minority which it said is subject to systematic discrimination, including the arbitrary denial of citizenship to an estimated 300,000 born in Syria.

"Middle Eastern governments need to recognize that the rights of minorities, refugees and stateless persons need greater protections," Whitson said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145270.html