The third Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), released on Tuesday under U.N. auspices, sees no real reforms in the Arab World. It said most reforms were "embryonic and fragmentary" and did not amount to a serious effort to end repression in the region.
Both the U.S. and Egyptian governments criticised parts of an early draft of the report, leading to a dispute that held up its release for at least three months. According to Reuters, the report, which covers the year from Oct. 2003, was written before elections in Iraq and street protests in Lebanon.
Rima Khalaf, the senior UNDP official who presided over the intellectuals and reformers who wrote the report, said Arab states had to embark on reforms that expanded public freedom.
