Regionalization of human rights: towards an Arab human rights system? : the Charter, the Bodies, and the Court saga

Abstract

The evolution of the International system for the protection and promotion of human rights, or the United Nation System, has led to the regionalization of human rights with the growing of regional human rights protection systems in importance steadily over the past few decades. The MENA Region does not have a regional human rights system of its own, but most of its States are covered by at least one of the five above-mentioned regional systems, namely the African Human Rights System, the Arab Human Rights System and the European Human Rights System, notably the case of Turkey. This paper is to examine the emerging Arab Human Rights System championed by the League of Arab States, which is the newest regional systems. Studying the Arab Human Rights System is important mainly because of the size of the population that it is meant to cover and the current turmoil in the Region it is meant to cover. A well functioning human rights system can provide answers to many of the causes of the turmoil and hence improve the lives of the population of the region; however, as things stand presently, a lot of changes need to take place before establishing such a system and achieving these ends.