This article provides a historical overview of the evaluation of human rights mechanisms in the MENA region, starting with the initial process of drafting an Arab Charter on Human Rights and its subsequent adoption 10 years after the emergence of the first draft.
It also provides an overview of the functions and mandate of multiple organs tasked with ensuring the promotion and respect of human rights in the MENA, primarily the Arab Human Rights Committee which came into existence upon the ratification of the Arab Charter on Human Rights.
With a mandate to promote and strengthen the respect of human rights in the MENA, the article reviews one of the Arab Human Rights Committee’s most important functions, which is to consider reports of the state parties to the Charter, in which each signatory state must indicate measures undertaken to enforce the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Charter.
The article then provides a critical account the impediments inhibiting the Court’s function as an effective mechanisms to address human rights violations in the region by redressing victims of rights violations and holding perpetrators of these violations accountable for their actions.
Finally, the article concludes with recommendations to enhance the aforementioned human rights frameworks, emphasizing the role of civil society in any effort that aims at promoting and strengthening the respect of human rights in the MENA.
