Despite Obama’s 2009 Cairo pledge to support democratic freedoms, survey finds worsening human rights situation in Arab world.

Less than a year ago, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech in Cairo, calling for a new beginning in America’s relations with the Muslim world while pledging to support the advance of democracy and human rights.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton renewed the president’s pledge just last month in a speech to the U.S.-Islamic world forum in Doha, Qatar.

But some rights activists say that, despite those American promises, freedom and human rights are still under assault across the Arab world. A new survey finds the status of human rights in the Arab region deteriorated last year, compared to 2008.

Deteriorating conditions

Twelve Arab countries are profiled in the report by the non-profit Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. The study finds that developments over the past year have threatened progress toward improved human rights. It suggests that governments have acted “with impunity,” particularly in Egypt, to suppress dissent by illegally jailing critics and political opponents and enacting harsh anti-terrorism laws.