East and West: partners in justice by Radhia Al-Mutawakel - Common .

East and West: partners in justice

by Radhia Al-Mutawakel

26 October 2010PrintEmailSanaa - In 2008, the American organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) reached out to me as a legal rights activist and asked me to help alleviate their charge in Yemen. They wanted to speak human rights violations in Yemen, particularly the condition of civilians displaced by the war in Yemens northern Saada district, where government forces have fought an armed group, known as the Huthi, since 2004.

Despite the fact that I am a legal rights activist, I drop into the snare of suspicion and stereotyping: I considered everything American to be piece of a political conspiracy that actually has naught to do with peoples rights and freedoms. It took a reasonable number of opinion and a persistent desire to amend the human rights office in my state to master my suspicion. I decided, cautiously, to take their offer. I began to go for them through the Yemeni organisation Hewar (dialogue, in Arabic) on a test basis. It has now been nearly 3 days since I began working with HRW. I have watched this system operate through its dedicated and meticulous researchers in Yemen. The results of their efforts were a list of reports, three of which addressed the bloody war in Saada. They also successfully created public consciousness in Yemen about a figure of damage that were missing from Yemeni lexicon, such as civilians, displaced and enforced disappearance. Through these reports, HRW managed to pressure, professionally and with great care, the relevant foreign and local parties to stay human woe and leave the discharge of prisoners, based on the model of the Yemeni Constitution, and home and international law. One important story in 2008, Disappearances and Arbitrary Arrests in the Armed Conflict with Huthi Rebels in Yemen, combined with the function of local Yemeni non-governmental organisations, led to the release of more than 50 detainees imprisoned illegally during the war in Saada. There is no question that without the interaction and outstanding performance by local civil society organisations working on human rights in Yemen, HRW would not have been capable to do its role. Indeed, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of HRW, has said: Yemen has some of the Arab worlds most accomplished, independent and professional human rights activists. My experience with HRW has helped me re-think the way that I feel at the kinship between the E and the West, and made me think more deeply about the better way to construct bridges between them. Coexistence can entirely have aim through working jointly towards a spirit of respect, justice and equity for all. Certainly, culture and ideology play a role amongst the contradictions and tensions that sometimes mar relations between Muslims and the West. Accordingly, many groups focusing on building bridges through literature, art, music and other intellectual and cultural means, which I respect. But we should not discount the fact that we are attempting to construct bridges between two communities whose relations have likewise been riddled with issues pertaining to rights, freedoms, security, justice and equality. Ignoring this fact while attempting to construct bridges of sympathy between Muslims and the West will simply create bridges that can crumble at any moment. In place for these bridge-building attempts to accomplish their goal, Western and Islamic communities should go to find strong common ground. For instance, they should partner in the human rights field where they can together ensure justice and equality. Right now, this is hard to reach at the government level, which is why nations aspiring for change should make use of polite society. My personal feel with human rights act in Yemen made me think that polite society is the better way to produce real change and to create solid common ground between communities in the Islamic populace and the West. ### * Radhia Al-Mutawakel is a human rights activist and the Manager of Hewar Organization for Democratic Development in Yemen. This clause was written for the Usual Ground News Service (CGNews). Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 26 October 2010, www.commongroundnews.org