»Das Jahr der Revolutionen«

2011 was a year without precedent for the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa region. It was a year in which millions of people of all ages and backgrounds, especially the young and often with women to the fore, flooded on to the streets to demand change. Often, they continued to do so in the face of extreme violence meted out by the military and security forces of those who claimed to govern – and who had continued to enjoy and to squander the fruits of power – in their very name.

Dubbed the “Arab Spring”, in fact the protests brought together in common cause people from many different communities – certainly Arabs for the most part but also Amazigh, Kurds and others. It was as if a tightly wound coil of frustration caused by years of oppression, human rights violations, misrule and corruption was suddenly unsprung, releasing an energy and power that ordinary people until then had neither experienced nor realized that they possessed. The flames of protest, literally and tragically, were sparked by the desperate act of one young man – Mohamed Bouazizi – in the small Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid. His injuries proved fatal before he could see the maelstrom of popular fury that his act touched off. That maelstrom succeeded, in turn, in toppling the long-standing rulers of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen who, until 2011, had seemed invincible.

It was a year like no other, when the whole region shook as ordinary people summoned up the courage to provide a demonstration of “people’s power” such as the region had never seen before and, incredibly, to sustain it even when the might of the state and its repressive security forces were deployed against them. This failed in Tunisia and then in Egypt, where peaceful protests triumphed, albeit at heavy human cost, while in Libya the result was a slide into armed conflict in which international intervention tipped the scales against the oppressive regime of Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi. In Yemen, the President’s obstinate refusal until almost the end of the year to stand down despite mass anti-government protests and increasing levels of repression and violence exacerbated the country’s already deep social, political and economic problems.

 Bahrain’s rulers, backed by Saudi Arabia, faced down the protests by force, again at heavy human cost and deepening divisions, but ended the year committing to reform, reparation and reconciliation. Meanwhile, Syria teetered at the edge of civil war as its obdurate President, facing unprecedented the state of human rights in the middle east and north africa January 2012 1 demands for change, used relentless brute force to crush the protests, but in doing so succeeded only in exposing further the rotten nature of his rule.

This report describes the events of this historic, tumultuous year, one which saw so much suffering and sadness but also spread so much hope within the region and beyond, to countries where other people face repression and everyday abuse of their human rights. Amnesty International too was challenged, as never before, to respond to the events by documenting the violations that were committed and, most of all, by mobilizing its members and supporters to extraordinary lengths in support and solidarity with the people in the streets of Cairo, Benghazi, Sana’a, Manama, Dera’a and elsewhere who were truly “in the frontline” in demanding reform, accountability and real guarantees for human rights. This report is dedicated to them, their suffering and their momentous achievements.

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