Geneva – Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor's Board of Trustees held a meeting via Zoom to discuss the organization's strategies and activities, on Wednesday.

With the participation of Chairman of the Board of Trustees Richard Falk, Deputy-Chairman Hanine Hassan, Chairman of the Board of Directors Ramy Abdu, Strategy Director and member of the Board of Directors Maha Hussiani, and members of the Board of Trustees, Noura Erekat, Tareq Ismail, Lisa Hajjar, Tanya Cariina Newbury-Smith, and John Whitbeck, the meeting started with a briefing on the organization's strategies and strengths. One such strength is that it does not receive funding from the European Union, which allows Euro-Med Monitor to maintain a high level of independence and impartiality.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees Richard Falk expressed his gratitude to the executive team working hard to achieve Euro-Med Monitor's objectives and goals. "Euro-Med’s work is more needed now than ever given the change of circumstances in the Middle East, especially since Euro-Med Monitor does not get funding from the EU or any other party responsible for human rights abuses in the region", he said.

On the role of youth and volunteers, Chairman of the Board of Directors Ramy Abdu said that they are "the backbone of our work. We have been relying on them for field research, field testimonies, and advocacy campaigns.”

"We defended the rights of vulnerable people; women, children, victims of discrimination and violence, and refugees and migrants. We carried out advocacy and lobbying campaigns for the European institutions and parliament to inform and mobilize public opinion", he added.

Abdu noted that the organization has relied on individual donations and crowdfunding campaigns over the course of the past 10 years.

Maha Hussaini, Strategy Director, briefed the members on Euro-Med Monitor's current projects. "We maintained the projects we kicked off in past years, and we also launched new phases of our current projects. The programmes included capacity building and training, raising awareness, providing consultations and launching lobbying and advocacy campaigns", she said.

Deputy Chairman of the Board, Hanine Hassan spoke about the priorities of the organization, saying, "We try to excel in our work by understanding the victims' languages and their conditions. We understand that change has to come from our communities and our regions. We aim to educate the communities of the Middle East about human rights violations with our [own] language."

Board Member Noura Erekat said that "Euro-Med Monitor [offers] a different tone to humanitarian [work] that [other organizations do] not consider," and offered the use of her platforms in any way to Euro-Med Monitor.

The Board agreed to hold another meeting to discuss the priorities of Euro-Med Monitor’s strategic plan for the years 2023 – 2025.