Human rights swept up in anti-terror laws across the Middle East

Political instability spurred by decades of war, foreign military intervention, and the recent Arab Awakening, has allowed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a terrorist group, to surface. However, the Middle East has a new kind of terrorist: the human rights activist. As part of the ongoing global war on terror and to stop emigrating citizens who wish to join ISIS, MENA states have passed new anti-terror laws that loosely define terrorism and allow stricter punishments. These laws have been used to criminalize and imprison human rights activists across the region. Rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported on some arrests of human rights activists under these new anti-terror laws.

Last year, Waleed Abu Al-Khair, Saudi Arabian human rights lawyer and former defense attorney of online activist Raif Al Badawi, was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by a 15 year travel ban and a 200,000 riyal fine. Abu Al-Khair was the first to be charged by the Saudi Specialized Criminal Court under Article 21 of the 2013 anti-terror law. In a 2011 analysis of the draft law, Human Rights Watch warned of the broadly and vaguely defined terror crimes that could be used to put Saudi human rights activists on trial.

Three advocacy groups concerned with human rights for Bahraini citizens published a statement calling on the country’s allies to urge the Bahraini government to revise anti-terror legislation which was recently amended to allow pre-charge and pre-trial detention for up to 7 months, a time period during which it is alleged that detainees have been subject to torture. The groups assert that, “the use of anti-terrorism legislation to silence dissent and curtail the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association is an unacceptable aberration from international law,” while citing that 328 individuals have been charged under the anti-terror law in 2013 alone.

The trend of broadening anti-terror laws continues with Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt. In Jordan, a law passed in April of 2014 expands the definition of terrorism to threaten freedom of speech, and expands possible punishments, which include the death penalty. This January, Morocco passed similar measures, and yesterday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi granted authorities sweeping power under the latest anti-terror law to emerge from MENA. The law includes the power to ban organizations and gatherings that harm national unity, disrupt transportation, or the functioning of universities. This comes at a time when Al-Sisi’s crackdown on Islamists and secularists alike has killed and imprisoned thousands.

For some reason, battling terrorists, like ISIS, by imprisoning human rights and democracy activists makes little sense to me. One would think that a natural antidote to violent extremism would be peaceful and democratic human rights activists. Apparently, however, the kings and autocrats of MENA want to have their cake and eat it too, by passing sweeping laws in attempt to rid their states of violent extremism while using those same laws to maintain a stranglehold on political power and social activity.