Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Future Work Directions

The seminar "Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Future Work Directions" brought together human rights defenders, activists and also officials from the entire MENA region.

HE Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh, peace Nobel Prize laureates (2015) and Tunisian Minister for the Relations with Constitutional Bodies, Civil Society and Human Rights, during the opening speech.

During the last session of the seminar, participants were split in four groups in order to discuss plans and strategies for action on how to create and maintain safe and enabling environment for civil society and human rights actors through good practices and experiences.

Participants of the seminar during a panel discussion.

Taieb Baccouche, Secretary General of the Arab Maghreb Union, during a presentation.

Participants during a workshop session on International and regional partnerships, solidarity and advocacy and participation among society stakeholders.

A panel discussion on “Challenges and prospects of Human Rights and Citizenship Education”, moderated by Soumicha Riyaha, Representative of the National Council for Human Rights in Morocco,

Nasser Hammoud Kriouin, Secretary General of The Arab lawyers Union, and Abdelbasset Ben Hassen, President of the Arab Human Rights Institute.

The seminar was held, in Tunis, the 20-21 December 2018,

On the occasion of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean in cooperation with the Arab Institute for Human Rights organized a regional seminar on human rights in the Middle East and North Africa region in an effort to outline future work directions.

During this workshop, entitled "Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Future Work Directions", human rights defenders, activists and also officials from the entire MENA region, discussed the reality and prospects of human rights in the region, the state of the rule of law, the consequences of crises on human rights work, and the challenge of shrinking spaces for civil society activism.

The workshop also included debates on the prospects of human rights education and working group sessions addressing the question of how to create and maintain a safe and enabling environment for civil society activists and human rights defenders in the Southern Mediterranean region.