Who we Are, Introducing the Defenders?
we are a group of human rights defenders. We are individuals and groups that have founded a coalition of defenders in the Middle East and North Africa Region which aims at consolidating ways to protect the defenders in the public sector, shedding light on the violations against them, as well as offer support systems through advocacy, sharing experiences, knowledge, activities, and the production of knowledge and positive arrangements to challenge the culture of patriarchy and the hegemonic masculinity and discrimination against women in the different societies, as well as provide safe spaces to do that.
What is a WHRD?
a defender is someone who promotes and incessantly seeks, in peaceful manners, to uphold human rights in her society, whether individually or as a member of an organization of group, as well as contributes towards ending all human rights violations and primary liberties for people and individuals.
What is our Vision?
The general vision of the coalition: building societies that believe in human rights, freedom, and democracy without any discrimination and through fighting human rights violations in the member countries of the coalition or any other country, whether they be individuals or organizations.
What are our Goals?
The general goal: Establishing cohesive and effective sub-regional coalitions that work as a core, or as a local group, supporting the defenders to introduce the causes on which they are working in a safe and effective space, and that is through reinforcing ways of protecting and potentiating the defenders of human rights, promoting the concepts of human rights defenders, defining their role, as well as spreading the culture of respect and support of human rights defenders. That is done through the following:
1- Advocacy for the protection and empowerment of human rights defenders
2- Spreading the concepts of human rights defenders and defining their role
Article 4: Principles and Values
1. Commitment to the coalition’s work plan, vision, goals, and principles
2. Respecting the confidentiality of the defender’s information and the privacy related to the nature of her work
3. Credibility and transparency in treating coalition members and others as concerns administrative and funding procedures
4. The coalition’s independence from national funding and politics, whereby the coalition is not susceptible to any conditions that might shake its principles or the nature of its work
5. Respecting human rights and dignity, indivisibly and indiscriminately
