The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA) was established in the beginning of 1997 as a civil non-profit corporation in response to the multitude of violations of the basic human rights and freedoms of the great majority of human rights activists and advocates in the Arab region.
Due to their belief in the principles and values of human rights, their advocacy activities, and their heroic defense of human rights, those people were exposed to severe cruelties. This situation was aggravated by the lack of an Arab mechanism dedicated to advocating human rights activists, advancing their issues and solving their problems.
The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists was, therefore, launched as a vehicle for continuous, collective dialogue on the problems, needs and aspirations of human rights activists in the Arab world.
In October 2003 the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists was legally redefined as a non-governmental organization in accordance with the law number 84 issued in 2002 for organizing NGOs in Egypt.
APHRA is mainly dedicated to achieving the following objectives:
1. Providing effective mechanisms for protecting human rights activists in the Arab world
2. Supplying and documenting information regarding human rights activists, the violations they are exposed to, their interests and experiences, and investigating ways this information can be used and shared.
3. Promoting continuous communication among human rights activists regarding the ways to satisfy their needs and to solve their problems.
4. Providing an independent platform for human rights activists to express their thoughts, aspirations and problems.
5. Developing theoretical and practical training programs in the different fields of human rights, reinforcing activists' abilities to make field investigation, to monitor and document violations of human rights, and providing teaching in basic rights and freedoms.
6. Building an Arabic and international data base of human rights publications and making them available to human rights activists and researchers.
HOW WE WORK
1) Urgent actions and advocacy campaigns:
Through an extended network of national and international coordinators, APHRA issues plenty of urgent actions calling for instant solidarity with human rights activists and quick actions against the Arab regimes that violate their rights and freedoms. It also documents these events, which in turn can be used as a means for assessing the magnitude and variety of human rights violations.
In case of severe violations, APHRA organizes Arab and international pressure campaigns, signature collecting campaigns, and media campaigns for releasing human rights activists and protecting their basic rights and freedoms.
2) Organizing meetings with concerned ambassadors:
In severe cases of violations, such as being ill in prison or being imprisoned for extended periods, APHRA organizes meetings with concerned ambassadors giving them detailed accounts of these cases and requests to exert pressure on states to stop the violations against human rights activists at once.
3) Monitoring trials:
In case human rights activists are prosecuted in exceptional or emergency courts, APHRA assign some of its lawyers and coordinators to monitor the legal proceedings, intervene if it is permitted, and make reports on the legal proceedings and the extent to which they are in agreement with the standards and principles of fair prosecutions.
4) The "Activists" bulletin:
The "Noshataa" [Activists] bulletin has proved to be very essential for communication between APHRA and human rights activists all over the Arab world. It succeeded to a great extent in launching and directing open and far-reaching discussion about plenty of important issues human rights activists are facing. It also documents human rights violations and activities in the Arab region.
5) Country report series:
APHRA is issuing several reports examining freedom-limiting legislations, and monitoring and documenting the violations that human rights activists are being subjected to in all Arab countries. In addition, APHRA publishes an integrated annual report that documents all violations that take place along the year in all Arab countries.
6) Civil society memory periodical:
This series collects data and information about human rights organizations in the Arab world for the purpose of creating a data base of human rights organizations and facilitating communication and cooperation and networking between them.
7) Research studies:
Making research is one of the important tools that APHRA makes use of. Research offers a means for deeply studying practical and theoretical problems faced human rights activists in the Arab region and the possible solutions to those problems.
8) Conferences, symposiums and workshops:
These collective meetings make it possible for human rights activists in the Arab world to raise and discuss several interesting issues. They help in developing consensus among those activists regarding the most urgent problems and considering the practical mechanisms for overcoming obstacles that hinder human rights activists.
9) Training:
Training is of paramount importance for advocacy and human rights protection. APHRA is providing human rights activists with theoretical and practical training in controversial issues. It also offers training in human rights culture and principles for newly recruited people with the aim of disseminating and deepening human rights culture.
10) The international day for human rights advocates:
This solidarity activity celebration that APHRA devised turned into an annual festival in which all Arab human rights organizations participate. In this festival the most prominent human rights activist in the Arab world is rewarded with the "Year Activist" prize for his achievements in the previous year or for being exposed to fierce violation of his/her basic rights and freedoms.
