New Book by CIHRS: Prospects for Reform in the Arab Region in Post COVID-19 Realities

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) has released a new book on 19 February 2021 titled “Prospects for Reform in the Arab Region in Post COVID-19 Realities.” The book presents the papers of CIHRS 23rd Regional Forum for the Human Rights Movement, held between 31 August and 7 September 2020. The Forum was attended by over 50 human rights defenders, civil society activists, and academics from American, European, and Arab universities and think-tanks, and former United Nations and Arab officials.

The papers of the Forum explored the question of reform across the Arab region, given a fluid context that has become more unpredictable due to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and its political and economic ramifications. Over the course of the Forum’s sessions, ten Arab and Western experts from academic and human rights backgrounds presented their papers on an array of contexts across the region. The authors (Joost Hiltermann, Stephan Roll, Yara Hawari, Karim Nammour, Louisa Dris Ait Hamadouche, Nacer Djabi, Albaqir al-Afif Mukhtar, Akram al-Bunni, Nadege Lahmar, and Ahmed Nagi) examine the 2019 uprisings in Algeria and Lebanon, address the challenges to the transition in Sudan, explore the possibility of ending the conflicts in Yemen, Libya, and Syria, turn to the potential effects of the pandemic on Egypt’s economy, and finally, examine the intersection of COVID-19 with apartheid in Palestine.

The conclusions of the Forum, originally published on 12 October 2020, are republished as the book’s conclusion, and include key takeaways from the deliberations of the Forum’s seven sessions. Founded in 1999 by CIHRS, the Forum is an intellectual initiative bringing together human rights defenders and academic experts from the Arab region and across the globe, to discuss themes related to the future of human rights and democracy in the region.

E-Book available here