Region category: Middle East & North Africa

Release Bassel Khartabil, Held Unfairly since 2012! Hivos joins 30 other international organizations in calling on Syria’s authorities to immediately reveal the whereabouts of Bassel Khartabil, a software developer and defender of freedom of expression.  Syrian authorities transferred Khartabil, who has been detained since 2012, from `Adra central prison to an undisclosed location on October 3, 2015. Khartabil […]

Where: Cogite Coworking Space, Tunis, TunisiaWhen: October 8 to 11, 2015Hosted by: Hivos Mideast Creatives Across the Mediterranean region, a diverse collection of young men and women are seizing the opportunity to spread a new movement of creative spaces. Initially born out of necessity, there are now over one hundred shared workspaces across the region, 88% of which were established […]

Women’s groups from seven countries agree to work together and share expertise. Images of refugees desperate to reach Europe come to us daily on our TV screens, newspaper pages and Twitter and Facebook feeds. We see images of desperation and tragic death when the journey to safety and new beginnings is cut short by the […]

As the ongoing violence and destruction leaves its traces throughout the country, many Syrian citizens continue to strive for peace, safety and justice. One of the many impressive initiatives undertaken by the Syrian people comes from Zabadani, a strategically located city near the Lebanese border that has been witnessing intense fighting between the Syrian regime, […]

Hivos welcomes the news that lawyer and journalist Mazen Darwish has finally been released after more than three years in prison. He was arbitrarily detained since February 2012 for promoting freedom of expression and monitoring gross human rights violations committed in Syria. His wife,Yara Badr, told the AFP on 10 August that his release is […]

On the evening of 2 May 2015, prominent Iraqi human rights activist Ammar Al Shahbander was killed during a terrorist attack in a lively commercial district in Baghdad. A car bomb exploded in the street targeting innocent people, our partner amongst them. Hivos is overwhelmed with grief and shocked by this tragedy. Ammar was the […]

Hivos joins their renewed call for the release of the ‘Duma Four’ To mark the 38th birthday of missing human rights defender and lawyer Razan Zaitouneh, head of the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria (VDC), winner of the 2011 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 2011 Anna Politkovskaya Award of RAW in WAR (Reach […]

Hivos partner ASL 19 hosted the third annual Iran Cyber Dialogue (ICD) on 5 and 6 March in Valencia, Spain. The conference brought together government actors, civil society members, journalists and technical experts to discuss the state of Iran with respect to technological infrastructure, Internet policy, and human rights. Host ASL 19 (Article 19 in […]

Do you want your book to be published? Do you have a disruptive idea for a publishing start-up? Maybe it is a book idea that you believe readers all over the Middle East are waiting for? Or maybe it is a new app that allows for dynamic reading of Arabic eBooks? It could even be […]

A strong appeal for women’s involvement in peace negotiations in Iraq and Syria was made to Dutch Foreign Minister Koenders by two Hivos partners from the region on February 17, 2015. Suzan Aref from the Iraqi Women Empowerment Organization, together with a leading member of the Syrian Women’s Initiative for Peace and Democracy, discussed the […]

Detained Arbitrarily, and Tortured On the third anniversary of their arrest, Hivos joins 70 other human rights groups in urging the Syrian government to immediately free the prominent Syrian human rights defenders Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir.  The three men have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty on the basis of their human rights […]

As the civil war in Syria rages on, millions of Syrians have lost their loved ones, home, income and security. In addition to these enormous challenges, many Syrian girls also face the danger of underage marriage. Many Syrian parents, often in a dire financial situation, feel forced to marry off their daughters, or see marriage […]