Since inception in 2004, EMHRF has allocated over 1,900 urgent and seed/operational grants to safeguard, nurture and sustain the agency of human rights defenders, NGOs, and movements at the local, national, regional and international levels.
EMHRF has supported important ecosystems of human rights defenders, associations, and movements including a younger generation of actors and new forms of civic activism, to promote and defend the rights of marginalised communities and support them to claim respect for their rights. The support has equally served as a base for many local grassroots movements to form coalitions and join national dynamics that have been instrumental in reform processes.
With EMHRF’s support:
- Threatened defenders moved to safer locations, accessed legal and medical aid, supported their family and maintained their ability to defend human rights.
- Syrian victims and survivor groups pursued innovative mobilisation and advocacy for years leading the United Nations to establish a new independent institution for missing persons.
- Feminist civil society groups seized opportunities to further gender equality in law and in practice and formed coalitions to combat SGBV and propose reforms in Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco & Tunisia.
- Film screenings and festivals, theatre plays, art exhibitions and trainings were held to preserve collective memory, to encourage tolerance, critical thinking, debate and civic engagement, and to develop independent spaces for free expression and artistic creation on human rights.
- Civil society groups established support units for LGBTIQA+ persons, listening centres for women survivors of violence, and citizenship clubs for youth in rural areas of Morocco and Tunisia.
- Migrant-led organisations formed coalitions to defend respect for their rights and strengthen their integration and access to social services.
- New pluralist media initiatives were launched and use local dialects to debunk official narratives, educate and empower youth to defend human rights in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia.