Human development report reveals Egypt ranks 101

 A report unveiled at the UN by Ban Ki Moon secretary general revealed that Egypt ranks as a medium development country, coming 101 out of 169 countries on the human development index.
The report entitled “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development”, emphasized  that the Arab Human Development Report for 2009 illustrated significant  discrepancies between actual practices and official support for democracy and human rights and the rule of law.

The report highlighted that although the region has recently witnessed remarkable progress in terms of democratic reforms, many of the reforms were countered by increased restrictions on the rights of citizens in other areas. This is evident in Egypt’s recent restrictive regulations imposed on private media and communications indicating that it intends to monopolize the industry.

According to the report, governments also continue to impose restrictions on political freedoms where they prohibit the establishment of political organizations. It indicated that while countries were being characterized by multi-party systems, such as Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Yemen, Lebanon and Morocco differed from other countries in terms of political pluralism that has prevailed since their independence.

It stressed that although the region has recently witnessed remarkable progress in terms of democratic reforms, many of these reforms were countered by increased restrictions on the rights of citizens in other areas. It added despite the change in the structural power base in Arab countries, the executive authorities still assume control with no accountability whatsoever. Egypt was used as an example where it highlighted that although it amended its constitution to allow multiple candidates to stand in the presidential elections; it revoked the decision and immediately passed a law restricting this right to licensed parties only.

The report indicated that Norway, Australia and New Zealand were at the top of the indicators and Niger, Congo and Zimbabwe were ranked as the lowest developed countries and Arab countries ranking higher than Egypt included Algeria (84), Bahrain (39), Tunisia (81), UAE (32), Saudi Arabia (55), Kuwait (47), and Jordan (82).