European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights

EU Legislative Interests

European Parliament resolutions and letters, EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights. 1- Hold meetings with Members of the European Parliament to educate and discuss with them the human rights situation in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the others. 2- Hold meetings with Members of the European Parliament to educate and discuss with them the situation of the migrant workers in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the others. 3- Hold meetings with the staffers and advisors of the Members of the European Parliament to educate and discuss with them the human rights situation and the situation of the migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the others. 4- Bring delegations consistent of activists and human rights defenders from the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries who are living in the region or in Europe to meet with members of European Parliament. The purpose of those meetings to spread awareness and educate the members about the human rights situation in their countries. 5- Conduct joint meetings with other international non-government organization and members of the European Parliament to advocate for policies which are pro-human rights in the region. 6- Advocate for stronger human rights policies toward Gulf Cooperation Council Countries in every meeting with members of the European Parliament and their staffers. 7- Advocate for resolutions, public letters, public speeches, other forms of public advocacy by members of the European Parliament to address the concerns of the ongoing human rights violations in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries. 8- Distribute research and publications about human rights violations and culture of impunity in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries.

Communication Activities

1- We communicate with members of the European Parliaments on regular basis asking them to call publicly for the release of all political prisoners in GCC countries. Such communication is done electronically and via meeting in-person. 2- We communicate with the EEAS on regular basis asking them to call publicly for the release of all political prisoners in GCC countries. Such communication is done electronically and via meeting in-person. 3- We are in constant communication with EEAS before their annual dialogue on human rights with all GCC countries where we provide briefings and updates to EEAS officials on cases and current situation related to human rights status in the GCC countries. Such communication is done electronically and via meeting in-person. 4- We attend on regular basis the different hearing on DORI committee and other committees in the European Parliaments with the aim to engage and communicate with different members of such committee on issues related to human rights status in GCC countries. 5- Hold several online or in-person events and seminars sponsored by members of the Europeans Parliaments. In these events and seminar we raise several human rights challenges/violations which are happening in GCC countries and suggest recommendations on how to address those violations. We invite experts like UN Rapporteurs, activists from GCC, human rights experts, and international non-governmental organizations to be part of these events and seminars. 6- We hold campaigns on several issues related to human rights challenges and violations in GCC like: women rights, political prisoners, migrant workers, torture, cultural rights, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, corruption, transparency, and others. We ask members of the European Parliament to participate and in some cases lead such campaigns. 7- We conduct several advocacy communication to: Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG) in the European Parliament. Especially the important work of committees like the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), and the Development Committee (DEVE). 8- We advocate for the following EU policies or legislative proposals: -EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders -EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Protocol No 8 relating to Article 6(2) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) -Proposals to extend the list of EU crimes to all forms of hate and crime and hate speech, Article 83(1) TFEU provides for an exhaustive list of such crimes. - Strategy on the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030. - Legislative proposal to prevent and combat certain forms of gender base violence. - EU Strategy on victims' rights (2020-2024). - EU anti-racism action plan 2020-2025. -European democracy action plan COM(2020)0790, 2020.

Interests Represented

Does not represent commercial interests

Member Of

ECDHR is not a member of any organizations or confederations. Our sister organization, ADHRB, is a member of several such organizations, including: IFEX, CIVICUS, the World Coalition against Torture, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and OMCT.

Organisation Members

We are affiliated with Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.

Additional Information

ECDHR's total budget for the fiscal year was 15,144 EUR. Those were provided exclusively by grants and donations under 10,000 EUR and therefore cannot be registered in the Transparency Register system. However, we often cooperate with our sister organization on budgetary matters, and many of the positions that provide man-hours to ECDHR are funded by ADHRB. ADHRB's total dollar budget for the 2024 fiscal year was 140,193 USD. ECDHR benefited from approximately €175 000 in donated in-kind services, including therapy and fellowship hours. These are disclosed for transparency but not recognised as financial income.