More than 80 human rights organisations gathered at the 11th EuroMed Rights General Assembly in Brussels where Wadih Al-Asmar from the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) was elected President for a three-year mandate.
Commenting after the election, Wadih Al-Asmar said:
The promotion of active citizenship and dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean is now more crucial than ever. We will do our part in building and strengthening dialogue and cooperation between the North and the South of the Mediterranean Sea, and propose answers to the burning questions on the region that are firmly rooted in human rights and democratic principles.
The mobilisation of civil societies in the countries of the region already proved of key importance to respond to the shrinking spaces for their action.
EuroMed Rights acts as the facilitator of collaborations within the Euro-Mediterranean region and the next three years will be crucial to promote cooperation between citizens in the region to counter a growing feeling of insecurity that the intolerance towards others may entail.
The General Assembly also elected a new Executive Committee that will be composed as follows:
- Wadih Al-Asmar – Lebanese Center For Human Rights (CLDH)
- David Bondia – Human Rigths Institute Of Catalonia
- Theodora Christou – Bar Human Rights Committee Of England and Wales
- Lubna Dawany – Mizan For Law
- Moataz El Fegiery – Cairo Institute For Human Rights Studies
- Søs Nissen – Dignity
- Radostina Pavlova – Center For Legal Aid Voice in Bulgaria
- Sara Prestianni – Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana (ARCI)
- Messaoud Romdhani – Forum Tunisien Pour Les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES)
- Jamila Sayouri – Adala-Justice
- Hamdi Shaqoura – Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR)
- Catherine Teule – European Association For The Defence Of Human Rights (AEDH)
Michel Tubiana, former President of the Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (LDH) and who has been actively leading the EuroMed Rights network since 2012, has been appointed as Honorary President.
About the new President
Wadih Al-Asmar is co-founder and secretary general of the movement SOLIDA (support of Lebanese detained arbitrarily), co-founder and President of the CLDH (Lebanese center for human rights) and co-founder and secretary general of the FEMED (euro-Mediterranean federation against enforced disappearance). Since the summer 2015, Wadih is one of the founders of the Lebanese social movement #youStink (#tol3etRy7otkoun), which actively participated in organizing and supporting most of social demonstration during the last Garbage crisis in Lebanon. In addition to that, Wadih AL-ASMAR actively participated in the drafting of several laws related to Human Rights in Lebanon, such as the draft Law on the criminalization of torture. His work on human rights at the regional level is mainly within EuroMed Rights, for which he has been a member of the Executive Committee.