Third Arab Human Development Report called “Courageous and Impartial”

Amman, Jordan, 5 April 2005—The third Arab Human Development Report, calling for greater freedom and good governance in the Arab world, was welcomed at a launch ceremony here today by Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher and Prince Turki Ben Talal Ben Abdul Aziz, president of the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations, along with other dignitaries and officials.

“What distinguishes this report is its courage and its impartiality,” said Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher, representing the government of Jordan at the launch event. “It has triggered the kind of constructive debate that we have long awaited."

Deputy Prime Minister Muasher added: "Internal reform and expanding freedoms for all is not a luxury, it is an absolute necessity. We need it to change the reality that we can see daily -- a reality that has been exposed by the findings of this report on the state of freedoms in the Arab world , and by the feelings of anger and despair among Arabs.”

The Arab Human Development Report 2004, the third of a four-part series, was written by an independent group of leading Arab scholars and intellectuals, and was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme together with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND). The authors call for urgent and sweeping political reforms throughout the Arab world.

“The Arab nation now needs to rise for itself and for the future of its sons and daughters,” said Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab States, who supervised the report. “The renaissance that we seek will remain outside our reach unless we pull together and unify all the elements that have almost lost hope, to dictate the reform that we desire. It is most appropriate that this change takes place by our own hands and in accordance with our own best interests, not at the mercy of the swords of others.”

She added: “When emergencies rule and laws negate constitutional effectiveness, and while authority becomes mesmerized by the temptations of continuity, there is little room for people to express their opposition, and only a constricted space where they can voice their concerns.”

Noting that the first two Arab Human Development Reports had stimulated discussions on change, AGFUND President Prince Turki Ben Talal Ben Abdul Aziz said he believed the new Report would generate “controversial discussions and badly needed dialogue” on freedom and good governance--“the issue of the hour.”

"Despite differing opinions about its context, I hope that this report will provide a foundation for positive movement toward the strengthening of freedoms in the Arab world,” said Deputy Prime Minister Muasher. “We could disagree on how to get there, but we should never disagree on the ultimate objective of guaranteeing and protecting freedoms to arrive at an Arab society that sees in cultural diversity and in the diversity of thought, elements of strength rather than elements of weakness."

For further information, please contact:
Nadine Shamounki, email: nadine.shamounki@undp.org , tel. +1 (212) 906–5171 or cell +44-7709-415-462; or
William Orme, email: william.orme@undp.org, tel. +1 (212) 906–5382 or cell +1 (917) 607-1026.