Euro-Med_HRM

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor

Non-profit human rights organization

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (commonly known as Euro-Med Monitor and sometimes as Euro-Med HRM[1][2][3][4]) is an independent, nonprofit organization for the protection of human rights.

Quick Facts Founded, Founder ...

Richard Falk, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,[5][6] serves as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.[7][8][9]

Foundation

Euro-Mediterranean Human Right Monitor was founded by Ramy Abdu in November 2011 in Geneva, where it maintains its headquarters.[10][11][12]

Objectives

According to the organisation, its main objective is to raise awareness about human rights law in Europe and the Mediterranean-North Africa area and to influence the international community to take action against human rights violators.[13][14]

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and its leadership have been described as close to Hamas by Linkiesta.[15] Israel has accused Euro-Med Monitor of being a "one of Hamas’ main operatives and institutions".[16]

Management

Ramy Abdu, the founder of Euro-Med Monitor, serves as the chairman of the organisation.[17]

Euro-Med Monitor's strategic direction is guided by its Board of Trustees, which includes human rights professionals including professors, academics, lawyers, advisors and international activists. Richard A. Falk is the chairman of the board of trustees.[18] Members are: Christine Chinkin, Noura Erakat,[19] Celso Amorim, Lisa Hajjar,[20] Tareq Ismael,[21] John V. Whitbeck[22] and Tanya Cariina Newbury-Smith.[23][24]

Special Consultative Status

The group has applied for consultative status, but action on the application has been postponed several times due to queries from Libya, Bahrain, and Israel.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]

Work

Women's Leadership Incubator (2017-2019) project was funded by the Swedish Kvinna Till Kvinna[33] organization and aimed to empower women in the Gaza Strip to defend their rights and create their own sources of income. The project was based on funding and training local non-governmental organizations staff through capacity-building programs to support women and enhance their social and economic participation.[34]

In September 2022, Farah Maraqa, one of seven Arab employees of Deutsche Welle fired[35] in February for "anti-semitic" posts, subsequently sued DW and won her case. Euro-Med Monitor’s work was to review the case, where they found fault with the logic of the accusers. The court ruled that her dismissal was "not binding" and that her dismissal hearing "was not carried out properly", as the posts were made prior to her beginning employment with DW; after the ruling DW released a statement, saying "The presiding judge emphasized that the pieces in question are, in her opinion, clearly anti-Israeli and antisemitic in nature and incompatible with the values for which Deutsche Welle stands".[36][37]

We Are Not Numbers

Main article: We Are Not Numbers

We Are Not Numbers is a project launched by Euro-Med Monitor international secretary Pam Bailey and Ramy Abdu in February 2015 to provide workshops for young writers from Gaza on writing English-language articles and stories, as well as producing English-language content material for social media, in order to reach Western audiences.[38][39] The programme provides each participant with six months' training with native English-speaking mentors,[40] and began with around 40 young people from Gaza writing on an English-language blog while receiving mentoring from experienced authors and journalists. The aim was to open a window to "the people behind the numbers in the news".[41]

A year later, the project had grown to involve more than 75 writers from Gaza, and was supported by mentors including Susan Abulhawa, Miko Peled, Alice Rothchild and Ben Norton.[42] In August 2016, Bailey was denied entry to Israel, despite having a permit to enter Gaza, on account of her 'illegal' work. A lawyer suggested she had been added to a blacklist of Palestinian and international NGOs involved with human rights advocacy.[43]

In 2019, a collection of works from the project was published in German as the book We Are Not Numbers: Young Voices from Gaza (German: We Are Not Numbers: Junge Stimmen aus Gaza).[41]

WANN also launched a Hebrew-language website called We Beyond the Fence in 2020 to provide Israelis with access to Palestinian articles, poems, and personal essays about life in Gaza.[44] As of 2021, WANN was involved with 30 NGOs and other organizations,[45] and in 2023, the programme accepted its 17th cohort of prospective Palestinian writers.[46]

Publications

Euro-Med Monitor regularly publishes reports on many different topics relating to the human rights situation in Europe and MENA, including,

Summary executions

OHCHR stated on 20 December 2023 that according to witness accounts circulated by media sources and Euro-Med Monitor, Israeli soldiers summarily killed eleven unarmed men in Rimal.[47] Subsequently in January 2024, Al Jazeera reported that the number of deaths was 19. Euro-Med Monitor told Al Jazeera they believe there is a pattern of "systematic" killing, that "In at least 13 of field executions, we corroborated that it was arbitrary on the part of the Israeli forces." On 26 December, 2023, Euro-Med Monitor submitted a file to the International Criminal Court and United Nations special rapporteurs documenting dozens of cases of field executions carried out by Israeli forces and calling for an investigation.[48][49][50]

Migrants and refugees

In September 2021, Euro-Med Monitor and ImpACT International documented widespread state-sponsored violations of human rights against African migrant workers in the UAE. The two organizations released a report based on about 100 interviews with migrant workers from African countries who confirmed that the authorities carried out a massive campaign of arrests against about 800 African workers in the country.[51][52][53]

In January 2021, Euro-Med Monitor released a report indicating that the Frontex was involved in illegal pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean.[54]

In December 2020, Euro-Med Monitor released a study in cooperation with the York University to address the risks that refugees with disabilities in Turkey face, including lack of adequate care and social services.[55]

In December 2017, Euro-Med Monitor and Amsterdam International Law Clinic issued a report on the legal position of ‘Stateless Persons’ in the EU, shedding light on the EU's laws concerning stateless persons.[56]

In September 2014, Euro-Med Monitor revealed information about the fate of hundreds of migrants after their ship wrecked in the Mediterranean.[57]

Arbitrary detention

In April 2021, a group of 22 influential academics signed a Euro-Med Monitor petition demanding that the government of Saudi Arabia release former minister Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil.[58]

In July 2020, Euro-Med Monitor released a report on Jordanian government measures against teachers, including arresting teachers’ syndicate leaders and shutting down the syndicate.[59]

In March, 2021, the group sent a letter to UK authorities signed by 15 UK MPs and peers to highlight the case of Michael Smith who is detained in Dubai. The Independent quoted Dr. Tanya Newbury-Smith, a Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor trustee, as saying: "There has been strong backlash against Dubai over its detention and treatment of Princess Latifa, and her case is one of many."[60]

Treatment of civilians during armed conflict

On May 24, 2022, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and UN Women Palestine organized an art exhibition, titled "I am 22, I lost 22 people," showing paintings made by a survivor of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza during the Israeli military attack on the Strip in May 2021. The survivor, Zainab Al-Qolaq, displayed the suffering she had experienced from the moment her house was bombed and her 12-hour stay under the rubble until she found out that she had lost 22 members of her family, in addition to the internal struggles she has been facing since that time.

Euro-Med Monitor and UN Women Palestine released a booklet that gathered al-Qolaq's paintings and texts describing the psychological impact of the incident and presenting information about the targeting of the al-Qolaq family house.[61][62]

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