arab human development report 2003 - Palestine Remembered

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe first Arab Human Development Report(AHDR 2002) addressed the most importantdevelopment challenges facing the Arab worldat the beginning of the third millennium. Thissecond Report continues the process by examiningin depth one of these challenges: thebuilding of a knowledge society in Arab countries.The AHDR series aims at building humandevelopment in the Arab world. As part of acontinuing watch on human development inthe region, this Report therefore opens by surveyingsome of the most salient trends andevents at the global, regional and national levelsthat influenced the process of human developmentin the Arab world in 2002-2003. The remainderof the Report is a close study of one ofthe three cardinal challenges facing the region:its growing knowledge gap. It starts by outliningthe conceptual basis of an Arab knowledgesociety and moves on to evaluate the status ofthe demand for, and the diffusion and productionof knowledge in Arab countries at the beginningof the 21st century. It next analyses thecultural, economic, societal and political contextinfluencing knowledge acquisition in theregion at this critical junction in its history. Thelast section of this analysis culminates in astrategic vision that delineates the landmarks ofa deep social reform process for establishing aknowledge-based society in the Arab countries.A Year of Loss, Re-examining CivilLiberties since September 11“..over the last year the US government has taken aseries of actions that have gradually eroded basichuman rights protections in the United States, fundamentalguarantees that have been central to theUS constitutional system for more than two hundredyears.”(American) Lawyers for Human Rights.Mohammad Hassanein HeikalThe bell rung by the AHDR and heard by Arabs andother people the world over carried echoes of all thebells ringing through our lives. It was a call to knowledgeand learning, an announcement of the last chanceto join the trip to the future, an appeal for cleansing, aninjunction to make way for an urgent priority, and finallya forewarning of imminent danger – urging us tohasten to douse the flames of a still-small fire waiting toengulf the region in a formidable blazeA ONE-YEAR OVERVIEW OFHUMAN DEVELOPMENT:TWO SETBACKS AND THE STARTOF REFORMA review of global and regional developmentssince the publication of AHDR 2002 underlinesthat the development challenges representedby the three deficits in knowledge,freedom and women’s empowerment remainserious. Those challenges may have becomeeven graver in the area of freedoms, as a resultof these developments.United Nations High Commissionerfor Human RightsThe late UN human rights chief, Sergio Vieira deMello, emphasised that the ‘war on terror’ was exacerbatingprejudices around the world, increasingdiscrimination against Arabs and damaging humanrights in industrialised and developing countries.Following the bloody events of September11 and the loss of innocent lives in violation ofall man-made and divine laws, a number ofcountries have adopted extreme security measuresand policies as part of the “war on terrorism”.These measures and policies, however,exceeded their original goals and led to the erosionof civil and political liberties in manycountries in the world, notably the UnitedStates, often diminishing the welfare of Arabsand Muslims living, studying or travellingabroad, interrupting cultural exchanges betweenthe Arab world and the West and cut-Developmentchallengesrepresented by thethree deficits inknowledge, freedomand women’sempowerment remainserious.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1