| Kippreport.com

UN asks Arab World to get its act together

July 22, 2009 8:15 by Dana El Baltaji

“Though violence against women can be found in every country, women in societies with entrenched male dominance, patriarchal kinship patterns, and legalized discrimination – the situation in many Arab countries – are acutely vulnerable,” said Munira Fakhro, former Associate Professor at the University of Bahrain and an advisory board member for the AHDR.

Fakhro also said that the human security of people in the Arab region depends, first and foremost, on the health of the environment that sustains the people.

In Arab countries, a widespread lack of human security undermines human development, according to the report. The report identifies several ways in which Arab countries can improve human security.

It also addresses the weak structural underpinnings of the Arab oil economy and calls for governments to toward more diversified, knowledge-based economies that provide sufficient employment. Arab countries are greatly exposed to the fluctuations of oil prices, as oil accounts for more than 70 percent of the region’s exports.

The report called for tackling poverty and ending hunger despite the comparative affluence of the region. An estimated one in five people in the Arab region live below the internationally recognized poverty threshold of $2-per-day.

And finally, report called for boosting public health by expanding access to affordable, quality health care. Referring to the region’s growing number of refugees, the report said that more than 17 million people in the Arab region have been forced by violent conflict to flee their homes, the world’s highest number of refugees in any given region.

First seen in Arab News.

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Tags: Arab Human Development Report 2009, Arab world, oil economy, refugees, UN, unemployment, women