arab spring

The Arab Spring is a series of uprisings in different countries in the Middle East that began in one country and spread to the rest, forming what is known as a revolutionary wave. The Main cause was opposition to the current regimes in most Arab countries. Rulers have been forced from power in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, and major protests occurred in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait. In Syria the revolts led to massacres that are still ongoing.
The Int’l community called for expanded liberties and civil rights in many authoritarian countries in the Middle East. Australia supported the revolutionaries in their demand for democracy, Canada supported that as well but chose not to send help, France supported morally and militarily (in Libya). Turkey, Russia and Israel think similarly on the fact that these uprisings were bound to happen at a certain point. The U.K offered funding to post-revolution Egypt and Tunisia and the U.S supported reform and democracy in these countries.

The Arab Spring can be viewed as the world’s first true human rights revolution: the young protesters spoke the language of democracy and human rights, and the international community responded in the same language, with references to human rights law and international criminal law, and referrals to the institutions that help sustain them, such as the UN Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Many human rights advocates were glad when the UN Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC, and when the Libya intervention was justified in terms of the international “responsibility to protect”. States have also affirmed individuals’ and peoples’ rights to participate in their own government in legally binding human rights treaties. The right of all citizens to participate in their own government has been expressly agreed to by about two-thirds of the international community in Article 25 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights