The recent upsurge of cries for regime changes in North Africa and the Middle East shows that the Arab world is finally ready for democracy. Ousting of long serving dictators in Egypt and Tunisia early this year is an attest to the growing discomfort of citizens in dictatorial states in the world. The dictators have repressed on human rights in the name of national security but that seems to have gone down the drain and what the population wants are people-elected governments.
Such government’s accountability is easier to track and translate to democracy. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has led Libya for several decades under dictatorial rules and total evasion of human rights. He has been a long time enemy of the West unlike the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has remained an ally of the western countries despite his repressive regime.
While it is important and true that the West moved to calm the escalating violence against civilians and infringement of human rights, there appears to be favoritism in terms of when to intervene. It took continued negotiations for the Egyptian leader to step down from power but it has taken the NATO forces attacks to force Gaddafi to step down. This leniency is clearly visible and puts in question the equality of sovereign states in the world. The United Nation duty is not only to ensure that human rights are respected, but also move to ensure that state sovereignty is also maintained.