Middle East and North Africa

“This training has given the staff new lenses. It helped the staff look at things from a different angle/ perspective and to take all possible useful details that we usually tend to overlook into consideration.”

- Darine El Hage, former Executive Director, ALEF, Lebanon

Human rights defenders from the Middle East and North Africa region have participated in New Tactics in Human Rights activities, including regional workshops, the International Symposium, publications, web-based discussions and more. These activists encouraged New Tactics to provide more focused training and resources in the region.

In 2009, CVT launched an initiative to support Middle Eastern and North African human rights defenders to advance human rights. New Tactics work in the region centers on:

  • Training human rights defenders and a group of trainers (Arabic/French/English) in the region on the New Tactics methods and resources. The trainers are prepared to use the methodology and train other defenders to use it to further their goals.
  • Creating an Arabic speaking virtual network of human rights activists through a New Tactics Arabic website, online conversations, and social media. The network allows human rights defenders to learn new tactics, exchange information and develop collaborations – all online.
  • Producing Arabic language resources, including translated materials such as the award-winning book, New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners. The resources will all be online for easy access.

Through its work in the region, New Tactics has:

  • Reached human rights defenders from several hundred organizations in numerous countries,  including Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Tunisia, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Jordan.
  • Provided subgrants to human rights organizations in several countries to use the New Tactics methodology and tools. This resulted in groups enhancing their work by defining and implementing new tactics, finding new allies and developing new plans.
  • In 2011, opened an office in Amman, Jordan and recruited staff to lead the work in the region.

Thank you to the Human Rights Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Open Society Foundations Middle East and North Africa for their support of Middle East and North Africa work.