ABSTRACT
Human rights abuse is widespread in the Middle East, a product of the region's combination of wars, arbitrary systems of power and government, inequality and social exclusion. Gross abuses of human rights, of the kinds recorded on this map, also contribute to the conditions of war, arbitrary power, inequality and exclusion. The combination of inadequate human security and a lack of good governance, a dual deficiency that is epitomized in the gross abuse of human rights, is a major blockage impeding efficient and sustainable economic development. The real crime is that they add to the pervasive reality, of which ordinary Iraqis have all too much experience, that those in power abuse human rights and disregard international law. With this, the occupying forces have simply contributed to the long list of obstacles that make social and economic development so difficult for Iraq.
