Part of the problem? A better European approach to human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

The ECFR MENA Programme is delighted to invite you to the launch event of its latest project, Part of the problem: A better European approach to human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.

Across the globe, human rights are coming under growing pressure, nowhere more so than in the Middle East and North Africa. While the European project is underpinned by a commitment to human rights, security and migration concerns have pushed a values-based agenda to the side in the decade since the Arab Spring. This discussion will consider if and how Europeans can more effectively support human rights in the region – as part of, and while maintaining, their broader political relationships with regional states and acknowledging the constraints facing European influence.

Eamon Gilmore is the European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights. He is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (2011-2014). He was previously the EU Special Envoy for the Peace Process in Colombia.

Heba Morayef is the MENA Regional Director at Amnesty International. Formerly, she worked with Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group.

James Lynch is a visiting fellow with ECFR. Lynch has worked as a diplomat for the UK Foreign Office and spent seven years at Amnesty International. He is a co-director of FairSquare, a human rights research group.

Julien Barnes-Dacey is the director of the Middle East & North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.