Democracy and Human Rights

Between April and August 2012, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung is implementing in cooperation with the Arab Women Organization (AWO) a national conference and a training workshop to integrate women rights into democratic reform in Jordan

​The Third Arab Blogger Meeting convened in Tunisia in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung, the international network Global Vocies and the Tunesian platform of internet activists Nawaat. More than 100 cyberactivists from across the Arab World participated in the „unconference“, as the meeting was called due to its unusual agenda of open meetings and ad-hoc presentations. They exchanged their experience and discuss their role in the Arab Spring. The first two meetings were organized by the hbs and Global Voices in Beirut in 2008 and 2009. Particularly the second meeting prepared the ground for the crucial role the digital activists assumed in the Tunisian revolution. The meeting received a wide media coverage in Arabic, English and German. Links to the most prominent articles can be find below, as well to the meetings websites, facebook pages and twitter accounts of participants. 

The 2010 Shashat film festival toured cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, targeting youth audiences as well as the general public in the belief that culture is a human right. Films were shown in 9 Palestinian universities, adding this year 8 schools to its youth outreach.

All over the world, gender relations are changing. Economic and cultural upheavals are giving rise to ever new ways of life and work. When those changes benefit women, that is usually due to the work of feminist networks, small and larger-scale gender-oriented organizations, and courageous individuals.

Project: To foster a resource and support network for outreach projects that use digital media to empower underrepresented voices and promote collaboration between bloggers and civil society organizations in Egypt. Micro grant funding and technical support was given to three citizen media projects in Egypt implemented by Rising Voices (outreach arm of Global Voices Online).

Heinrich Boell Stiftung AMEO is happy to announce the continuation of its support for Arab digital activists in the Arab world. Together with our partner Global Voices Online, we seek to strengthen the collaboration between non-digital and digital activism, to introduce non digital civil society with new media tools and to make their voices heard.

The human rights lawyer and founder of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Raji Sourani, has won the Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. It is the first time that a Palestinian has won the award. The Heinrich Böll Foundation is delighted about this decision and has congratulated Sourani on this outstanding achievement...

The Euro-Med Conference of civil society organizations and networks “Women’s Rights and Democracy Building: Promoting a common agenda for equality between women and men” took place on 7 – 8 June in Amman, Jordan. The Heinrich-Böll-Foundation was among the supporters of the conference, which was organized by the European Feminist Initiative IFE-EFI and other organizations from the MENA region among them Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s partners Arab Women’s Organization (AWO) from Jordan and Women’s Studies Centre (WSC) from Palestine..

After six years without elections in the Palestinian Territories, at least parts of the Palestinian population in the West Bank had the chance to cast their votes again on 20 October 2012. HBS Ramallah observed the elections with a small team. Read the Election Observation statement and an analysis by hbs office director Dr. René Wildangel...