Human Rights Activists from the Middle East

Middle East Delegation on Human Rights to Washington DC
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Middle East Delegation on Human Rights to Washington DC
On the occasion of the anniversary of U.S. President Obama’s Cairo Speech and the upcoming elections in Egypt, the North America and Arab Middle East offices of the Heinrich Boell Stiftung invited a delegation of human right activists from the Middle East. The delegation visited Washington, DC from June 28th to July 1st, to bring attention to the human rights situation in their home countries. It was organized in partnership with the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

The delegates were attending several bilateral meetings with high representatives of the U.S. administration, U.S. Congress and think tanks. They talked about the human rights situation in their respective home countries at the public event “Human Rights and Obama’s Policies in the Arab World” at the Brookings Institution and two media appointments with Deutsche Welle and Al Hurra.

Click here for documents related to the event at Carnegie and the media interviews

 
 

Radya Nasrawy

Radya Nasrawy is a human rights activist and lawyer from Tunisia. She presides the “Association de lutte contre la torture en Tunisie” (ALTT -Association against torture in Tunisia), which she cofounded in 2003 with a group of lawyers. Ms. Nasrawy participated in several international human rights missions such as a UN inquiry commission at Ivory Coast, several trial observation missions for Amnesty International and the International Federation of Human Rights, as well as missions for Human Right's Watch and the World Organization against Torture. Because of her courageous work as a human rights defender, Ms. Nasrawy is a frequent victim of harassment by the Tunisian authorities.

 
 

Kamel Jendoubi

Kamel Jendoubi is the Executive Director of the French Association for the Education and Training of Migrant Workers and their families (AEFTI). He is a founding member and Chairman of the Committee for the Respect of Freedom and Human Rights in Tunisia (CRLDHT) created in 1996 in Paris. Since 2004, Kamel also Chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN). In the field of immigration, he is a founding member of the Forum of Migrants in the European Union (Treasurer from 1991-1993).

 
 

Amal Basha

Amal Basha is the Chairperson for Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF), Sana’a, Yemen. She received a number of Letters of Appreciation for her contribution to the development efforts within the Yemeni community from UNDP, NGOs and Government. She was awarded a Golden Medal for Peace Initiative during the Gulf war in 1990. Honorary Certificate as she was elected in 1997: Mother of the Year and one of the Most Prominent Working Women in Yemen, Bahrain Shura Council Shield, Palestine Centre for Human Rights Shield and Yemeni Union Medal Bronze in recognition for her work on defending Human Rights.

 
 

Kamel Labidi

Kamel Labidi is a Consultant for the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) and representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in the Middle East and North Africa. He worked for Amnesty International for several years and was also the director for the Tunisian section. He studied at University of Paris and Tunisia. Throughout his career he has been working as a correspondent, contributor and reporter for several newspapers including United Press International, Reporters Sans Frontieres in Tunisia, Le Monde Diplomatique and the Daily Star.

 
 

Bahey Eldin Hassan

Bahey Eldin Hassan is the General Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and lecturer and author of several articles and papers on Human Rights and democratic transformation in the Arab Region, and contextual challenges facing the Human Rights NGOs. He is a Member of the Board of the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders (EMHRF). He received the Annual Award of “Human Rights Monitor” presented by the Human Rights Watch, 1993 and the Annual Journalism Award of the Egyptian Press Syndicate, 1987.

 
 

Ibrahim Almugaiteeb

Ibrahim Almugaiteeb is the founder (in 2002) and President of Human Rights First Society – Saudi Arabia. To this day HRFS continues its work, without license. Mr. Almugaiteeb works on the ground in Saudi Arabia to monitor and draw attention to the many human rights violations of women, religious minorities, foreign employees, prisoners and others who are discriminated against in a country where there is no Rule of Law. In addition to his ongoing work in Saudi Arabia he coordinates and works with human rights groups in other Gulf States, the Middle East and in the international arena to achieve HRFS' objectives.

Almugaiteeb, Ibrahim (2010). Human Rights in Saudi Arabia - Current Conditions (5 pages, pdf, 490KB)

 
 

Bassem Samir

Bassem Samir is a human rights activist working as the Executive Director of the Egyptian Democratic Academy. He has been arrested with 29 Egyptian human rights activists, bloggers, and members of political parties visited Nag Hammadi in order to show solidarity with the Coptic community against the attacks on Coptic civilians on the Coptic chrisms eve 2010. He has worked as a media monitoring director for the Egyptian presidential & the parliamentary elections in 2005, and on the Darfur case in the Arab media channels. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations from Helwan University.

 
 

Saif Nasrawi

Saif Nasrawi   is a Cairo-based journalist and political researcher. He worked for several media outlets including the United Press International, ON TV, and El Badeel. He is currently the managing editor of Egypt’s independent daily Al Masry Al Youm. Saif’s writing address democracy, social movements, political Islam in Egypt and Iraq. He received a bachelor's in economics and master's in political sociology from the American University in Cairo.

 
 

Dr. Radwan Ziadeh

Dr. Radwan Ziadeh is a Prins Global Fellow at Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University and a Visiting Scholar at The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University.
He is the founder and director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria and co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC. He is a frequent political commentator on several U.S., European, and Middle Eastern media outlets such as Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, B.B.C. and Al-Hurra.

Ziadeh, Radwan (2010). Serious and Systematic Human Rights Violations in Syria (7 pages, pdf, 370KB)