On 13 and 14 April, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) convened the 27th Regional Forum for the Human Rights Movement, titled ‘Human Rights at a Crossroads’. The regional forum was held in the Belgian capital Brussels. Participating in the forum were fifty human rights activists and academics from the Arab region, the United States, and Europe. Ten countries in the region were represented by participants at the forum: Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, and Tunisia.
Five sessions were held over the two days of the forum, opening with a session on the human rights dilemma between the international system and the Arab region, highlighting challenges and opportunities for actors in the international system, including the United Nations, to promote human rights in the region. The forum devoted its second session to discussing the future of the Palestinian question post-7 October, and the repercussions of the Israeli aggression on this future. Paths of human rights work and the political responsibility of the human rights movement were also examined at the forum sessions, within a critical presentation and analysis of the Arab experience together with discussion of the challenges facing human rights defenders amid ever-intensifying repressive policies and practices in the region.
The Regional Forum for the Human Rights Movement is an intellectual initiative that has been held annually by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies since 1999, bringing together human rights defenders, academics, and international experts from the Arab region and around the world. Through the forum, CIHRS seeks to cultivate a framework for dialogue on pressing issues in the Arab region related to reform, democratic transformation, respect for human rights, and the future of the human rights movement.
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