A Few Words
About Us
Since its inception in 1997, two years after the adoption of the Barcelona Declaration, EuroMed Rights has become one of the most prominent and most active actors in the Euro-Mediterranean region on human rights protection and democracy promotion. In 25 years, its membership has grown and its structure has been consolidated.
Today, the network represents 68 organisations active in 30 countries, with offices in Copenhagen (headquarters), Brussels, Tunisia and presence in Morocco.
The organisation still stands by universal human rights principles and believes in the value of cooperation and dialogue across and within borders. As such, the network pursues its mission through networking and exchange between its members and partners, capacity building as a way to improve their skills, monitoring and documenting human rights violations and abuses, and advocacy work.
The section below will give you a full overview of our vision, mission and working methods.
Wadih Al-Asmar,
President
Rasmus Alenius Boserup,
Executive Director
EuroMed Rights
A NETWORK BRIDGING TWO SHORES
EuroMed Rights is one of the largest and most active networks of human rights organisations in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Founded in 1997, EuroMed Rights encompasses 68 organisations from 30 countries. Its work is aimed at promoting and protecting human rights and democracy in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean regions and at influencing the policies of major European actors towards these areas.
Vision and Mission
EuroMed Rights’ vision is human rights and democracy for all in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Its mission is to strengthen the collaboration between human rights organisations from the South, the East and the North of the Mediterranean, and to increase their influence at home and abroad. This mission is achieved by facilitating the creation of joint strategies and action plans between members, and by conveying their shared analyses and views to decision-makers and to the public.
In its 2022-2027 strategy, alongside its regular work on Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries, EuroMed Rights identifies five key political goals:
- Reinforced Migration and Asylum Rights
- Advanced Gender Equality
- Increased Accountability, Justice and Space for Civil Society
- Strengthened Democracy and Fundamental Freedoms
- Enhanced Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
In parallel, EuroMed Rights strives to achieve five organisational goals:
- Energising its Member Base
- Increasing its Visibility and Impact
- Reducing its Carbon Footprint
- Improving its Financial Sustainability and Diversification
- Improving Internal Learning
Read “Improve and Advance”, EuroMed Rights’ 2022-2027 strategy.
Working Methods
EuroMed Rights works through, for and in collaboration with its members. Besides, we engage with hundreds of other civil society organisations and with national and international state institutions operating in the field of human rights. We do so by combining the key work methods explained below.
- Analysis and monitoring: EuroMed Rights monitors the development of the human rights and democracy situation in the Euro-Mediterranean region through desk-studies, field missions and other forms of data-collection. We also procure or produce fact-checked analyses of key trends and phenomena of relevance for our work. We use the results of the monitoring and analysis to strengthen the capacities and understanding of our members on specific issues and processes. We also use them as input and background for our political positioning and in the planning of our programme and advocacy and communication activities.
- Collaboration and co-creation: EuroMed Rights facilitates collaboration and co-creation among its members and stakeholders. In our co-creation processes, we often reach beyond the civil society sector to engage and mobilise national and international state actors and institutions. Most of our work is implemented through the organisation of a broad number of working groups, in which our members meet with their peers and with other stakeholders to exchange ideas, receive training, make joint action plans, and take joint decisions.
- Advocacy and communication: EuroMed Rights influences and reaches out to decision-makers, policymakers and the broader public through its advocacy and communication work. It does so in close collaboration with our members and partners. Our advocacy actions target international bodies such as the EU, as well as both regional and national governments including the EU member states and governments in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean.
- Mainstreaming: EuroMed Rights uses mainstreaming to address issues and concerns that affect the entire organisation. We systematically conduct gender mainstreaming throughout our work and ensure that freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right to peaceful assembly and movement, and access to decision makers and funding for civil society are addressed in all our programmes
Secretariat
EuroMed Rights Secretariat, headed by Executive Director Rasmus Alenius Boserup, is in charge of implementing the organisation's three-year work programme, as well as strategies and action plans adopted by the Executive Committee.
Members
EuroMed Rights is a member-driven network with a broad and diverse membership base. The Network serves as a platform to mobilise and engage our members in policy collaboration, capacity building, and advocacy and communication to jointly work on addressing human rights issues in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Executive Committee
The General Assembly is the supreme body of EuroMed Rights; it meets every three years and elects the Executive Committee.
The 2021-2024 Executive Committee is composed of:
President
Wadih Al-Asmar
Vice-President
Theodora Christou
Gender Mainstreaming Referent
Lubna Dawany
Treasurer
Moataz El Fegiery
Secretary general of the movement SOLIDA (support of Lebanese detained arbitrarily) and President of the Lebanese Centre for Human rights (CLDH). Wadih Al-Asmar is also one of the founders of the Lebanese social movement #youStink.
Executive member of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales. Theodora Christou is a barrister and an academic teaching at the London School of Economics and at Queen Mary University of London. Her primary areas of expertise are human rights, international and comparative law.
Secretary general of Jordanian association Mizan for Law. Lubna Dawany is also a Legal Advisor and Board Member of the Family Development Association. Since the 1990s, she has co-founded a number of NGOs in Jordan to fight violence against women, human rights and women rights.
Member of the board of directors for the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) , co-founder and chairman of the Egyptian Human Rights Forum. He previously represented key international human rights NGOs in the MENA region including the international Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and Front Line Defenders. He is currently assistant professor and head of human rights program at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
Monia Ben Jemia
Giorgio Caracciolo
Tony Daly
Dilyana Giteva
Professor of law at the University of Carthage, she chaired the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women from 2016 to 2018. She participated in the first group of experts in charge of drafting a bill on the eradication of violence against women, adopted by the Tunisian parliament in 2017.
A lawyer by training, Giorgio joined the UNDP Arab regional programme for the prevention of HIV/AIDS following his studies at the EMA Human Rights programme in Venice. After some time working in the coordination of activities for the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims within MENA. He joined Dignity-Danish Institute Against Torture in 2012 as manager for MENA.
Co-ordinator of the NGO 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World based in Ireland, programme manager of the developmenteducation.ie consortium and board member of Fairtrade Ireland. Tony teaches and supports popular education on human development, human rights and active citizenship.
Dilyana Giteva is an attorney at the “Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria”. She is actively engaged in counseling, litigation and representation of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in front of administrative authorities and courts in Bulgaria and Europe.
Jamila Sayouri
Hamdi Shaqqura
Gianluca Mengozzi
Marie-Christine Vergiat
Lawyer and the President of the Moroccan association Adala – Justice for the right to a fair trial. Jamila Sayouri is also a member of the Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights (OMDH) and the Moroccan National Council for Human Rights.
Deputy Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights for Program Affairs. His main area of expertise is democratic development, and civil and political rights.
Architect, member of the presidency and head of international solidarity networks for ARCI (Italian Cultural Recreational Association), president of ARCS (ARCI Culture Solidali, the ARCI's NGO), board member of the Italian Third Sector Forum. He works in the defence of civil, social and cultural rights, international development cooperation. He conducts research on the protection of historical and monumental heritage in war zones.
Marie-Christine Vergiat has been committed to human rights since 1983 within the French Human Rights League, where she is currently Vice-President in charge of economic and social rights and migration issues. She was a member of the European Parliament (GUE) from 2009 to 2019 and has been a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the EU/Maghreb Delegation.
Honorary President
Kamel Jendoubi
Honorary President
Michel Tubiana
Former President of EuroMed Rights (from 2003 to 2012), former Tunisian minister in charge of relations with constitutional institutions and civil society (2015-16). Kamel Jendoubi also presided the Tunisian High independent instance for the elections (2011-2014), and currently chairs the UN Group of experts to investigate human rights violations in Yemen.
Former President of EuroMed Droits from 2012 to 2018 and former President of the French League for Human Rights from 2000 to 2005, of which he remained Honorary President. Michel Tubiana, who passed away in 2021, was a lawyer and fervent defender of Human Rights.
Our Donors
EuroMed Rights' fundraising strategy is articulated around three general principles: ensuring the network’s independence, minimising our donor dependence and guaranteeing our financial sustainability. EuroMed Rights would like to acknowledge and thank the following donors for their financial support:
For the past ten years, ACT/Church of Sweden has supported EuroMed Rights with core funding for its activities in the promotion and defence of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.
Network of European Foundations (NEF) funds civil society in its work for social inclusion, democracy, and international development. NEF supports EuroMed Rights in the framework of Migration Programme activities and ECOSOC.
European Union
The European Commission is a long-term strategic partner to EuroMed Rights and supports country work, regional structured dialogue and capacity-building of civil society in the Southern Neighbourhood.
The Danish-Arab Partnership Programme is Denmark’s collaboration project with the Middle East and North Africa and is a long-term strategic partner to EuroMed Rights, focusing on strengthening good governance in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.
Fondation de France is an independent administrative agency aiming at fostering the growth of private philanthropy and private foundations in France. Its supports EuroMed Rights Migration Programme in Lebanon and our regional thematic strategy.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a German, legally independent political foundation. It supports EuroMed Rights work in Morocco with particular focus on migration, as well as in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
Norway and EuroMed Rights have a long-standing partnership through Norwegian support to its North Africa programme. Norway’s support to EuroMed Rights is implemented through country-specific interventions.
Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a stated aim of advancing justice, education, public health and independent media. They provide funds for EuroMed Rights to implement our 2022-2024 work programme.
Swedish International Cooperation Agency and EuroMed Rights have signed a five-year agreement (2023-2027), to ensure that human rights organisations, human rights defenders and civil society remain a political force in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
The Sigrid Rausing Trust is a UK grantmaking foundation to support human rights globally. It supports EuroMed Rights with core funding for its activities in favour of the promotion and defence of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.
