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January 23, 2012

Human Rights Watch Urges Nations to Support Arab Spring Protesters 
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Human Rights Watch is urging the United States and other nations to do
more to support the rights of Arab Spring protesters to build real
democracies in the Middle East.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch: "And to date,
the international community, as I've outlined, has been much too
equivocal and inconsistent in assisting the birth of rights-respecting
democracies in this region. Ultimately, the international community has
to decide what it stands for. Does it value the rights and the
aspirations of the people of this region, or does it prefer to side with
the autocrats? In the past year, the West has generally opposed the
violent suppression of peaceful demonstrators, but the West has frankly
been sometimes reluctant to become genuinely full partners with the
protesters."



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