The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) describes itself as a "network of more than 80 human rights organizations from over 30 countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region." It was formed in 1997 to "contribute to the protection and promotion of the human rights principles embodied in the Barcelona Declaration of November 1995." Essentially a funding and development arm of the European Union (EU), EMHRN is heavily funded by the EU Commission and also receives money from the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation and the Ford Foundation.
EMHRN’s October 21, 2005 press release described the findings of a delegation it had sent to the Gaza Strip earlier that month. The mission was hosted by EMHRN member Palestine Center for Human Rights (PCHR). Co-sponsored by the Interchurch Organization for Development Co-operation (ICCO) in the Netherlands, the mission included representatives of the International Commission of Jurists (Sweden), the Bruno Kreisky Foundation (Austria), and EMHRN (Denmark). All of these organizations were part of the working group that contributed to the EMHRN report, "A Human Rights Review on the EU and Israel 2003-2004," which accused Israel of "systematic human rights violations" and violation of "international humanitarian law."
Following Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, an EMHRN press release titled "The Gaza Strip is still occupied" attacked Israel for "separating families that live on different sides of borders" but omitted any mention of the continued Kassam rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip. It implied that Israel was to blame for "the investment environment [being] highly risky."
This profile is adapted, with permission, from the NGO Monitor.
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