March 9, 2004
The New York Times

Where Brave Constitutions Are Often Window Dressing

by Susan Sachs

Egypt's Constitution says the state may not detain people unless they are charged with a crime. Syria's Constitution declares that no citizen shall be tortured. Jordan's Constitution guarantees freedom of expression in speech and writing.

But Egypt has been under emergency law for decades, and tens of thousands of people have been kept in jail without charge. The use of torture has been routine in Syria's prisons for years, according to the State Department and rights groups. And journalists have been arrested for expressing views that the Jordanian government considered "harmful to national unity."

While members of the Bush administration have described the rights enshrined in the new Iraqi document as an unprecedented accomplishment for the region, in fact most Arab constitutions, among them Iraq's constitutions during the rule of Saddam Hussein, have long included similar guarantees.

Yet in the Middle East and beyond, the most stirring written guarantees of individual liberties have a way of being set aside by authoritarian rulers or political expediency. . . .

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