Human Rights at Arab Summits Closing Statements after September 11, 2001

Abstract

This study aims to show the degree of interest shown by Arab leaders in promoting the issue of Arab human rights, as evidenced by their closing statements at Arab League summits. This paper also intends to illustrate the impact of international events, mainly those of September 11 attacks, on the issue of Arab human rights as reflected in the closing statements of Arab League summit conferences. The Results of the study show that Arab political address make no reference to human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. September11 attacks were found to be a pivotal point in the transformation of Arab political address of human rights in that the frequency of mentioning of the human rights issues increased as a result of international transformations and American pressure on the Arab states.