An introduction to human rights in the Middle East & North Africa: a guide for NGOs

The international human rights system has been slow to develop in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. However, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) can play an important role advocating for the implementation of international and national legal frameworks protecting human rights, campaigning to defend human rights or documenting human rights abuses. This manual is designed to help NGOs in the MENA region who are interested in the field of human rights but feel that they do not know enough about it or where to start.

The manual should be read as a short introduction to a big and complex subject area. The areas the manual covers include: 

• understanding the human rights setting and using tactical mapping to analyse human rights problems 
  
• essential skills for NGOs wanting to work in human rights such as professionalism, fundraising, training and interviewing 
  
• building cultures that favour human rights such as using the democratic model and citizen participation. 
  
• interventions as human rights defenders, recording and reporting abuses, lobbying for groups and advocacy for specific causes 
  
• working in co-operation with other organisations to strengthen capacity and raise the public profile of human rights issues 
  
• helping those who have experienced physical or mental harm as a result of human rights abuses

Examples are provided to illustrate the points being made, and there are links to further resources, some of which are in Arabic, at the end of the manual.