Human rights within the framework of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (analytical study).

The emergence of oil has led to the establishment of an important economic bloc in the Persian Gulf region, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, which plays an important role in relations between its member states, as well as an important role at the international level, especially in the framework of international trade related to petroleum. Economic motives – in addition to security motives – played a key role behind the emergence of the GCC. With the development of global interest in human rights, whether within the framework of the United Nations, in regional international organizations, or in non-governmental organizations and civil society institutions, attention to human rights has come within the framework of the Arab Gulf States. Therefore, while human rights motives were not one of the reasons for the emergence of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, the Council later went along with global concerns for human rights, shifting the Council from an economic bloc only to a broader vision that includes other topics, including human rights. The Council culminated its efforts in this context with the issuance of the Declaration of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf in 2014, thirty-three years after the establishment of the Union in 1981.