BACKGROUND GUIDE

League of Arab States

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COMMITTEE DESCRIPTION

The Arab League (Arabic: al-Jmia al-Arabiyya), officially called the League of Arab States (Arabic: Jmiat ad-Duwal al-Arabiyya), is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia (Middle East). It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan after 1946), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. The Arab League currently has 22 members and four observers. The main goal of the league is to "draw closer the relations between member States and co- ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries.

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ARAB SPRING
INTRODUCTION
The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa has come to be known as the "Arab Spring", and sometimes as the "Arab Spring and Winter","Arab Awakening" or "Arab Uprisings" .It was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 following Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment. With the success of the protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen, and then spread to other countries. As people of many Arab countries are striving towards establishing a structure of governance based on principles of democracy, the worlds eyes are on this region, for such transitions do not only set precedence for many other civil societies and governments but have direct and immediate social political and economic ramifications.

The Arab Spring started from Tunisia. One must note that the protests were not an immediate outburst of angst against the government but a result of prolonged ignorance of the needs of the people by their state. The Tunisian revolt started with the self immolation by one protester and the protests resulted in ousting of President Ben Ali, release of political prisoners and re-elections to the constitutional assembly. Egypt witnessed similar mass uprisings, starting 11th February 2011, resulting in the end of the three decades presidency of Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian civil society revolution will go down as a remarkable example of a successful non violent civil society disobedience movement that had the strength to bring down a three decade powerful dictatorship.
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The success of the Egyptian and the Tunisian revolution gave a new color to the ambitions of the people living across sever Arab countries, reason and hope to pursue their cause. Several countries since then have witnessed several protests. As of July 2011, demonstrations have resulted in the overthrow of two heads of state: Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January following the Tunisian revolution protests, and in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011, after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. During this period of regional unrest, several leaders announced their intentions to step down at the end of their current terms. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced that he would not seek re-election in 2015, as did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose term ends in 2014, although there have been increasingly violent demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation. Protests in Jordan have also caused the resignation of the government resulting in former Prime Minister and Ambassador to Israel Marouf al-Bakhit being appointed prime minister by King Abdullah and tasked with forming a new government. Another leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, announced on 23 April that he would step down within 30 days in exchange for immunity, a deal the Yemeni opposition informally accepted on 26 April; Saleh then reneged on the deal, prolonging the Yemeni uprising. Libyan leader Muammar al- Gaddafi has refused to step down, causing a civil war between pro-Gadaffi loyalists and anti- Gadaffi rebels.

ARAB SPRING CASE STUDIES Syria:

Protesters have demanded political reforms and want that their rights be reaffirmed with an end to the state of emergency which has been in place since 1963. The Syrian government responded swiftly to the protests, arresting people, even children, committing several atrocities. The government stormed cities of Hama, Daraa, Medmah and few others with tanks in order to subvert the on-going protests. Seeking the militarys support in order to suppress the voice of discontent resulted in massive criticism of the actions by the international community.

Yemen:

The Yemeni uprisings began in January 2011 and have continued since. In the early phase, protests in Yemen were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify Yemen's constitution. The protestors' demands then escalated to calls for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. A major demonstration of over 16,000 protestors took place in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, on 27 January. On 2 February, Saleh announced he would not run for re-election in 2013 and that he would not pass power to his son.
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On a "Friday of No Return" on 11 March, protestors called for Saleh's ousting in Sana'a where three people were killed. More protests were held in other cities, including Al Mukalla, where one person was killed. On 18 March, protesters in Sana'a were fired upon resulting in 52 deaths and ultimately culminating in mass defections and resignations. The on-going violent protests in Yemen, resulted in President Ali Abdullah Saleh, getting injured in one of the conflicts, and thereafter he, along with his family members flew away to Saudi Arabia, and announced that he would not be seeking another presidential term. There is no certainty about whether Ali Abdullah Saleh will return to Yemen or not. People choose not to trust him for he declined thrice from signing the Gulf Cooperation Councils plan of immunity in exchange of his resignation. His address to the people of Yemen on television from Riyadh also resulted in massive protests. As the situation remains volatile there have still been sporadic instances of public outburst.

Libya:

On February 15th, 2011, a civil war broke out in Libya and has been continuing since, with forces loyal to Muammar Gadafis regime against those seeking to overthrow his power. The United Nations Security Council passed an initial resolution freezing the assets of Gaddafi and ten members of his inner circle, and restricting their travel. The resolution also referred the actions of the government to the International Criminal Court for investigation, and an arrest warrant for Gaddafi was issued on 27 June. In early March, Gaddafi's forces rallied, pushed eastwards and re-took several coastal cities before attacking Benghazi. A further U.N. resolution authorized member states to establish and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. The Gaddafi government then announced a ceasefire, but failed to uphold it. Libya currently witnesses armed conflicts amidst intervention by the NATO and various international attempts targeted at establishing peace in the region

Bahrain:
In Feb. 2011, the protests that swept through the Arab world touched down in the kingdom, and citizens demanded more political freedoms and equality for the Shia majority. What followed was a month of protests by the countrys marginalized Shiites, who make up 70 per cent of the population (the rest of the country the monarch and business elite are Sunnis). Protesters in Manama the islands capital camped out for days at the Pearl Roundabout (a central monument near the financial district), which acted as a centre point for the protests and provided a number of speeches calling for peace. After a month, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa brought in 2,000 troops, including 800 from the United Arab Emirates, and 1,200 troops with tanks from Saudi Arabia. Bahrain has since become something of a police state. There have been mass arrests, firings of government workers and reports of torture.

Syria:
The 2011 Syrian uprising is an on-going internal conflict occurring in Syria. Protests started in 26 January 2011, and escalated to an uprising by 15 March 2011.
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The uprising is influenced by concurrent protests in the region, and has been described as "unprecedented." The demands of protesters include for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, for the ruling Baath Party to allow other political parties, to end extrajudicial killings and torture, equal rights for Syria's ethnic and religious groups, and broad political freedoms, such as freedom of press, speech and assembly. More than 2,000 protesters have been killed, many more injured, and thousands detained, while the Syrian government says armed Islamist elements in the country are responsible for the civilian casualties and the killing of more than 340 members of the security forces.

Egypt:

Following immediately after the uprisings in Tunisia, protests spread across Egypt in January 2011 against the heavy-handed rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak resigned on Febraury 11th 2011, after 18 days of furious demonstrations and 30 years of autocratic rule. Egypt was then placed under the command of its army. Fresh protests erupted in April when citizens felt that their military was still loyal to Mubaraks government. In May, Egypts top prosecutor ordered Mubarak to stand trial, facing charges including killing protestors. On August 3rd, Mubarak entered the courtroom and faced the trial for corruption and involvement in the killing of protesters.

Yemen:
The Yemeni uprisings began in January 2011 and have continued since. In the early phase, protests in Yemen were initially against unemployment, economic conditions and corruption, as well as against the government's proposals to modify Yemen's constitution. The protestors' demands then escalated to calls for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. A major demonstration of over 16,000 protestors took place in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, on 27 January. On 2 February, Saleh announced he would not run for re-election in 2013 and that he would not pass power to his son. On a "Friday of No Return" on 11 March, protestors called for Saleh's ousting in Sana'a where three people were killed. More protests were held in other cities, including Al Mukalla, where one person was killed. On 18 March, protesters in Sana'a were fired upon resulting in 52 deaths and ultimately culminating in mass defections and resignations. The on-going violent protests in Yemen, resulted in President Ali Abdullah Saleh, getting injured in one of the conflicts, and thereafter he, along with his family members flew away to Saudi Arabia, and announced that he would not be seeking another presidential term. There is no certainty about whether Ali Abdullah Saleh will return to Yemen or not. People choose not to trust him for he declined thrice from signing the Gulf Cooperation Councils plan of immunity in exchange of his resignation. His address to the people of Yemen on television from Riyadh also resulted in massive protests. As the situation remains volatile there have still been sporadic instances of public outburst.

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Economics Implications of Arab Spring

The stock market responded positively to the announcement of Hosni Mubaraks stepping down as President of Egypt. The other direct economic implications of the protests and civil war, is that, the economy of most Arab nations gets directly affected by volatile conflict situations, given most of them are export oriented economies. Many oil producing countries in the region have the ability to influence world oil prices. Oil, an intermediate product, affects prices of almost every other commodity. Thus volatility in the region will have massive economic connotations for world prices. The combined current account deficit of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, and Tunisia is in excess of $15 billion. To plug the gap external financing is needed. The combined oil import bill for the non-oil Arab countries will have to be covered by the international community through the mechanisms of the IMF and the World Bank. Egypt for example needs economic aid to cover the shortfall in its budget over the next 2-3 years. The losses from the Tahrir Square protests were estimated to be around 1.7 Billion US Dollars. The tourism sector which is an important component of the economy suffered a 45% decline in Egypt and Tunisia since the wave of protest began. In Syria tourism has dried up completely. Even neighbouring Lebanon is feeling the impact of a weaker tourist activity. It is expected that during 2011 Egypts economy will shrink by 2.5 to 3% and Yemens by more than 4%. It is worth mentioning that Egypt stock market has declined by 25%. The World Bank promised to grant Egypt two billion USD over the next two years and to provide a loan of 2.5billion USD. The other aspect of this economic downturn is that wealthy Arabs are transferring their funds to Europe and North America. It is an undisputed fact that investors are nervous and afraid of uncertainty. One Arab newspaper estimated that some $30 billion has left Egypt since the onset of the Arab Spring. In the short term we shall witness a reduction in production, a decline in trade services and other economic activities. Non oil producing countries will be particularly hit. In the most general terms it can be said that the economies of the non-oil countries are on the verge of collapse and are semi- bankrupt. On the plus side the high oil prices have helped to cushion the economies of the members of the Gulf Co-operation Council. Saudi Arabia is investing $130 billion to finance low cost housing projects, salary increases for Public Sector employees and increased investment in education and social services. The World Bank believes that if the transfer to democracy is peaceful and sound, we should have economic growth in the years 2012/2013 of 3.5 to 4.5%. Economic growth in 2011 was 1.9%. Experts predict an upturn in economic activity in the years 2012-2014 with the expansion of the financial sector. Reforms in education and the introduction of literacy programs are urgently needed. In Egypt only 15% of women and 70% of men are literate. Fighting of corruption must accompany political and social reforms. There is a great need for urgent economic reforms to reap the benefits of the political reforms.
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Political implications of Arab Spring

The relationship between the citizen and the state has evolved over a period of time. From the Aristotelian understanding of citizenship which lay the foundation of modern day definition of democracy to what democracies in practice have become by suppressing information, leading to information asymmetry and distancing the state from the citizen in real terms, making the citizen a subject governed by a set of rules and regulations established by the state itself. The phenomenon of state perpetuating its own existence is eminent in all democracies. However one must understand that the nature of democracy in principle is such that the state comes from the people. Thus in every democratic state despite the increasing distance between the state and its citizens, the state cannot afford to be oblivious to the needs and desires of its citizens. This has emerged to be true for autocratic societies too. The Arab Spring bears massive symbolic value; in terms of reaffirming the strength of civil society and further stating that the real power in any governance structure, be it a democracy or a dictatorship lies in the population of that nation. Delegates must focus on the emerging strength of civil society, changing dimensions of governance in the Arab world.

IMPORTANT LINKS FOR RESEARCH

Must Refer:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201183081433165611.html http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Arab-League-Seeks-Relevance-in-Arab-Spring-- 123920639.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest- interactive-timeline http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14153583 http://www.carnegieendowment.org/topic/?fa=list&id=839 http://www.cfr.org/middle-east/issue-guide-middle-east-north-africa/p23929 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League

Base Research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring#Impact_of_the_Arab_Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reactions_to_the_Arab_Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_Arab_Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Syrian_uprising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Libyan_civil_war

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An Arab Awakening Article from the Western World
Suddenly, to be an Arab has become a good thing. People all over the Arab world feel a sense of pride in shaking off decades of cowed passivity under dictatorships that ruled with no deference to popular wishes. And it has become respectable in the West as well. Egypt is now thought of as an exciting and progressive place; its peoples expressions of solidarity are welcomed by demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin; and its bright young activists are seen as models for a new kind of twenty-first-century mobilization. Events in the Arab world are being covered by the Western media more extensively than ever before and are being talked about positively in a fashion that is unprecedented. Before, when anything Muslim or Middle Eastern or Arab was reported on, it was almost always with a heavy negative connotation. Now, during this Arab spring, this has ceased to be the case. An area that was a byword for political stagnation is witnessing a rapid transformation that has caught the attention of the world. Three things should be said about this sea change in perceptions about Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners. The first is that it shows how superficial, and how false, were most Western media images of this region. Virtually all we heard about were the ubiquitous terrorists, the omnipresent bearded radicals and their veiled companions trying to impose Sharia and the corrupt, brutal despots who were the only option for control of such undesirables. The second feature of this shift in perceptions is that it is very fragile. Even if all the Arab despots are overthrown, there is an enormous investment in the us versus them view of the region. This includes not only entire bureaucratic empires engaged in fighting the war on terror, not only the industries that supply this war and the battalions of contractors and consultants so generously rewarded for their services in it; it also includes a large ideological archipelago of faux expertise, with vast shoals of terrorologists deeply committed to propagating this caricature of the Middle East. These talking heads who pass for experts have ceaselessly affirmed that terrorists and Islamists are the only thing to look for or see. They are the ones who systematically taught Americans not to see the real Arab world: the unions, those with a commitment to the rule of law, the tech-savvy young people, the feminists, the artists and intellectuals, those with a reasonable knowledge of Western culture and values, the ordinary people who simply want decent opportunities and a voice in how they are governed. The experts taught us instead that this was a fanatical people, a people without dignity, a people that deserved its terrible American-supported rulers. Those with power and influence who hold these borderline-racist views are not going to change them quickly, if at all: for proof, one needs only a brief exposure to the sewer that is Fox News. Third, things could easily and very quickly change for the worse in the Arab world, and that could rapidly erode these tender new perceptions. Nothing has yet been resolved in any Arab country, not even in Tunisia or Egypt, where the despots are gone but a real transformation has barely begun. This is true even though both countries possess many of the prerequisites
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for a constitutional government, a mature democracy, economic progress and social justicelike a strong civil society, a history of labor organization, many highly educated people and some strong institutions. And despite the bravery of those who have been beaten, tear-gassed and shot while demanding change, even less has been transformed in other Arab countries. All of it could turn sour, whether through civil war in Libya or Yemen, paralysis in Tunisia and Egypt, or endless fruitless contestation with those in power in Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Iraq and elsewhere. As people in the West learn more about this crucially important part of the world, there are a few more truths that should be transmitted. One is that this is not a region that is uniquely unsuited to democracy, or has no constitutional traditions or has always suffered under autocratic rulers. The Middle East has certainly suffered recently under a string of appalling regimes. But this is also a region where debates over how to limit the power of rulers led to sustained constitutional effervescence in Tunisia and Egypt in the late 1870s and to the establishment of a Constitution in the Ottoman Empire in 1876. At that time the empire included not only todays Turkey but most of the eastern Arab world, including Syria and Iraq. Later, in 1906, Iran established a constitutional regime. Later still, in the interwar period and afterward, the semi-independent and independent countries of the region were mainly governed by constitutional regimes. These were flawed experiments that faced massive obstacles in the form of entrenched interests, the autocratic proclivities of rulers, and massive illiteracy and poverty. Still, the failures to establish sustained constitutional and parliamentary regimes were not due solely to those factors. These governments were systematically undermined by the imperialist great powers, whose ambitions and interests were often obstructed by parliaments, nascent public opinion and a press that insisted on national sovereignty and a fair share of their own resources. From the European powers undermining of the Iranian and Ottoman constitutional governments in the first decades of the twentieth century, to Americas interference in Lebanon and Syria and overthrow of the Iranian government in the 1950s, the pattern was continually repeated. The Western powers not only gave little or no support to democratic rule in the Middle East; they often actively undermined it, preferring to deal with pliable autocrats who did their bidding. In other words, the pattern of Western support for easily manipulated dictatorial regimes is by no means a new one. Much has been said in recent weeks about the potential of applying the Turkish model to the Arab world. In fact, Turkey and the Arab states came to their understanding of modernityand with it of constitutions, democracy, and human, civil and political rights through a shared late Ottoman past. This era, from the 1860s until 1918, shaped the understanding of these concepts for their peoples, although both Turkish and Arab nationalists have fiercely denied any Ottoman impact on their modern nation-states. Today Turkey does provide a model of how to reconcile a powerful military establishment with democracy, and a secular system with a religious orientation among much of the populace. It also serves as a model of economic success, of a workable cultural synthesis between East and West, and of how to exert influence on the world stage. In all these respects, it is perceived as a more attractive model than what is widely seen in the Arab world as a failed alternative: the thirty-two-year-old Iranian theocratic system.

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The Arab states have a long way to go to undo the terrible legacy of repression and stagnation and move toward democracy, the rule of law, social justice and dignity, which have been the universal demands of their peoples during this Arab spring. The term dignity involves a dual demand: first, for the dignity of the individual in the face of rulers who treat their subjects as without rights and beneath contempt. But there is also a demand for the collective dignity of proud states like Egypt, and of the Arabs as a people. This was the demand that nationalist leaders rode to power starting in the 1950s, as they targeted colonialism and neocolonialism. After that generations failures, they were replaced by dictators who provided the stability so prized by the Weststability purchased at the price of the dignity of the individual and the collective. It is this humiliation, by repressive rulers and vis--vis the outside world, that demonstrators from Rabat to Manama seek to eliminate. So far they have focused almost entirely on the root causes of their problems, which are largely internal. There has been little or no emphasis on foreign policy, no visible anti-Western feeling and limited mention of Israel or Palestine. There is great peril in ignoring this demand for collective dignity, whether it relates to the patronizing way the United States has long treated the region or the casual dismissal of the beliefs of most Arabs that justice has not been and is not being done to the Palestinians. If the people of the Arab world are fortunate in achieving democratic transitions, and can begin to confront the many deep problems their societies face, it is vital that a new Arab world, born of a struggle for freedom, social justice and dignity, be treated with the respect it deserves, and that for the first time in decades it is beginning to earn.

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