Co-authored with Ferdinand Francken, LEAD programme Coordinator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs The economic perspectives of young people in many developing countries are extremely poor, and unemployment rates staggering high. Even when jobs are available, there is often a mismatch between the skills young people can offer and those required by employers. In some of these countries, […]
“There is no abstract mass of Lebanese citizens; there are Lebanese male citizens and Lebanese female citizens.” – May Mikdashi, “A Legal Guide to being a Lebanese Woman” Why Lebanon? Lebanon has always had the image and reputation of being the most open and liberal country in the Arab world. Lebanese women in particular are […]
Behar Ali is a woman with a mission. As a young woman, she lived through the infamous poison gas attack on Halabja in the late eighties in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein started another campaign of violence against the Kurds in the mid-nineties, Behar fled to the Netherlands where she specialised in women’s rights. After the […]
The Bridges project (formerly known as Shelter Me) is a unique initiative in the Gulf region, in which Migrant-Rights.org and Hivos collaborate to improve the employment relationship between employers and their domestic workers. Part of our approach is to work with international businesses to develop a Code of Conduct to support and guide their staff […]
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence November 25, 2016 marks the beginning of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, an international campaign which commences on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (Nov 25) and concludes on International Human Rights Day (Dec 10). In the context of […]
The 31st of October was not a particularly good day for Lebanese women. An overhead visual of the Lebanese parliament reminded us of the stark reality that we have only 4 women MPs, that’s 3 % of the total number of MPs, one of the lowest percentages in the world. Not only did we have […]
In partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Women on the Frontline programme is honoured to have organised the ‘Women on the Frontline: THEIR STORIES’ film screening, the second in a series of screenings around the world. Three films depicting the experiences of three activists from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen were […]
On June 16, International Domestic Worker’s Day, Hivos is focussing attention on the range of abuses domestic workers from Southeast Asia face in the Gulf Region every day: non-payment of salaries, forced confinement, food deprivation, excessive workloads, and instances of severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. Especially now in the month of Ramadan, their working […]
Edited and translated version of original interview in Dutch by PZC Just over a year ago, our long-standing partner Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, was languishing in a Syrian prison for the simple reason that he fought for freedom of expression. The lawyer and journalist was released […]
Update 17 March 2016: 31 international organisations, including Hivos, renew their call for Bassel’s release on the fourth anniversay of his detention (see the joint statement in the right sidebar) +++++++++++++++++ November 19, 2015Bassel Khartabil, a defender of freedom expression being held in conditions amounting to enforced disappearance may be facing a death sentence, 36 local and […]
Today marks International Women’s Day, an excellent opportunity to celebrate the work of our partner civil society organisations that promote women’s rights. Around the world, men and women are openly challenging situations that impede women’s equal position in society. Hivos’ Women on the Frontline (WoF) programme strengthens women’s organisations across the Middle East and North […]
On this International Human Rights Day, we take the opportunity to remember the brave Libyan activist Salwa Bugaighis, who believed deeply in human rights, women´s rights and equality for all, and who paid the ultimate price for her convictions. Salwa was one of the founders of the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace, and played a […]