Euro-Med Monitor To HRC: Support And Strengthen Efforts To Rehabilitate And Empower Victims

Geneva - The Human Rights Council and the relevant United Nations bodies should support and strengthen human rights organisations that work to empower victims by contributing to their capacity-building and collaborating with them to carry out and strengthen humanitarian operations.

In a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council’s 51st session, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and Youth Parliament for SDG said, “Technical assistance and capacity-building programmes are crucial for the promotion and protection of human rights, particularly when utilised to support efforts aimed at empowering victims and providing them with a platform and tools to defend and protect their rights”.

Delivering the statement to the Council, Euro-Med Monitor’s research intern Nour Sabbagh stressed that “victims can also be agents of change; they could speak up for themselves about their own stories, with their own voices. Still, they require essential assistance to become more professional, more influential, and better heard”.

Sabbagh cited Euro-Med Monitor’s launch of its youth-led Project We Are Not Numbers (WANN) about seven years ago, calling it “an initiative to rehabilitate and build the capacity of victims in conflict areas so that they would become able to write about their experiences, express their aspirations, and introduce other societies to the reality in which they live.

“Participants [in WANN] have shown remarkable success in making their own voices heard by a large number of people all over the world”, Sabbagh added.

Furthermore, she emphasised that promoting and supporting such initiatives can significantly contribute to victim empowerment, by providing victims with the necessary tools to defend their rights and raising human rights awareness within their communities.

Full statement:

Mr President,

Technical assistance and capacity-building programmes are crucial for the promotion and protection of human rights, particularly when utilised to support efforts aimed at empowering victims and providing them with a platform and tools to defend and protect their rights.

Victims can also be agents of change. They could speak up for themselves about their own stories, with their own voices. Still, they require essential assistance to become more professional, more influential, and better heard.

More than seven years ago, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor launched its youth-led Project We Are Not Numbers as an initiative to rehabilitate and build the capacity of victims in conflict areas so that they would become able to write about their experiences, express their aspirations, and introduce other societies to the reality in which they live. Participants have shown remarkable success in making their own voices heard by a large number of people all over the world.

Given the significantly positive impact such initiatives can have, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and the Youth Parliament for SDG would like to draw the attention of countries and relevant UN agencies to the need of providing technical assistance to human rights organisations that work to empower victims, contribute to their capacity-building, and collaborate with them in carrying out and strengthening these operations.

Thank you.

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