This initial report of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) on freedom of association is the culmination of a process launched in September 2006. At its last general assembly, the Network decided to establish thematic working groups linking its various components. The working group on freedom of association was created as part of that process, with the overall goal of contributing to the promotion of ‘human rights values and international standards related to freedom of association in the Euro-Med region, in particular in the South Mediterranean area’.
From its inception in 1997, the EMHRN has taken a great interest in the issue of freedom of association. It noted with satisfaction the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (known as the ‘Declaration on Human Rights Defenders’), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1998.
Based on the Barcelona Declaration, which was adopted on 28 November 1995 and launched the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership process guaranteeing ‘the effective legitimate exercise of such rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression, freedom of association for peaceful purposes’, the Network then organised, in cooperation with the Association pour la défense des droits et des libertés au Liban and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation through the Bunian programme on good governance, a workshop on the ‘Legal Framework of Associations in the Arab World’, held in Amman on 9-10 May 1999.
Following the adoption on 10 May 1999 of the Declaration of Principles and Criteria Relating to the Freedom of Association in the Arab Countries (the ‘Amman Declaration’), cooperation between the EMHRN and the Arab initiative for Freedom of Association (AIFA) expanded. On 5-7 October 2000, the EMHRN, in partnership with AIFA, organized a seminar on ‘Freedom of Association in the Euro-Mediterranean Region’ with three Moroccan groups (Espace associatif du Maroc, Association démocratique des femmes du Maroc and Organisation marocaine des droits de l’Homme); the event concluded with the adoption of the ‘Casablanca Declaration’.
With the assistance of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the EMHRN then undertook a study on needs and expectations in the area of support for human rights defenders. The resulting feasibility study was approved by the organisation’s 2004 general assembly, which authorised the establishment of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Foundation to Support Human Rights Defenders. And finally, as part of the last Euromed Civil Forum, held in Marrakech, Morocco, on 5-7 November 2006, the EMHRN co-chaired a workshop on freedom of association, with the Fondation René Seydoux pour le monde méditerranéen focusing on the cultural component.
The current project is the outcome of this series of initiatives, which demonstrates the Network’s strong interest in the critical area of freedom of association for the past 10 years. The goal of the project is to foster mprovements in the expertise of organisations in matters of freedom of association and to help them acquire follow-up and proposal-drafting capacities so that they may promote, where necessary, substantial legislative changes and a framework of rules applicable to the practices of the regulatory authorities. The strengthening of civil society and its components is an important factor contributing to the process of democratic reform.