International Service for Human Rights

ISHR's involvement in the region includes training workshops for Arabic-speaking audiences, both in the region and in Geneva.

During the summer of 2008, ISHR took part in a training workshop in Cairo organised by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies that benefited human rights activists from across the region. In June 200, ISHR delivered a one-week training course on national human rights institutions and human rights defenders in Qatar, organised jointly by the Asia Pacifc Forum and the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar. The course was attended by some ten national human rights institutions from West Asia, most of them from Arab countries.

Conscious of the crucial importance of offering its services to and supporting the activities of human rights defenders and NGOs in a region where information on the UN human rights protection mechanisms and capacity to use them are generally lacking, ISHR is currently seeking funds to enable it to initiate a long-term and sustained programme of activities in the region, based on the actual needs and expectations of the human rights defenders and NGOs in the Middle East and North Africa.