Karama joins board of the Council of Europe North-South Centre

Saadia Wadah attends the Lisbon Forum. Photo: CoE North-South Centre

The Karama network has joined the executive board of the Council of Europe’s North-South Centre as one of two representatives from civil society.

Founded in 1989, the North-South Centre was established to “to spread the universal values upheld by the Council of Europe  – human rights democracy and the rule of law – beyond the European Continent.”

Karama has a long and fruitful relationship with the Centre, most recently participating in the Centre’s Women Empowerment Conference on protecting girls earlier this year. The network will be represented on the Executive Board by one of our co-founders, Saadia Wadah, human rights defender from Morocco and lawyer at the Bar of Casablanca.

Saadia also represented Karama at the recent Lisbon Forum.

Speaking of the network’s membership of the Centre’s board, Karama’s CEO and founder Hibaaq Osman said:

“It’s a great honor to be invited to join the board of the North-South Centre. As a network that brings together activists from across Africa and the Arab region, we recognize the power of working across cultures and borders on issues of common interest, so the invitation to join the board carried great meaning for us.

“We have always had a great working relationship with the North-South Centre, and we are very much looking forward to contributing positively to its work. There are many priorities that we share with the Centre, particularly around the rights of women and youth and their participation in society.

“Our representative Saadia Wadah is a truly outstanding activist and jurist, who has enormous experience and knowledge of human rights, women’s rights and the law, both in Morocco and internationally. I thank her for her commitment and thank the North-South Centre and its staff. We look forward to deepening our friendship and joint working.”