Shafaei with Dr. Violete Dagher from the Arab Community for Human rights

Shafaei with anti- Zionist and anti- Racist Rabbis

With Shushan Khachyan of the NGO group for CRC

Meeting Palestinians human rights activists

With Isabelle Scherer, the Director of the International Service for Human Rights

Various Human Rights Activities at the Fringe of Durban Review Conference

The President of the Bahrain Human Rights Monitor Mr. Hasan Moosa Shafaei participated in the United Nations’ Durban ii Review Conference on Racism held in Geneva. Mr. Shafaei organized several meetings with a number of officials in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as well as representatives of international, regional and Arab human rights organizations, in which he discussed human rights issues specifically related to the human rights situation in Bahrain and the Middle East.

Mr. Shafaei also met with Julian Waagensen, a human rights officer in the Middle East and North Africa Unit in the OHCHR, where the latest developments in the human rights situation in Bahrain were discussed, including the royal pardon of detainees which was the main subject of the discussion. Mr. Waagensen had his questions answered and showed great interest in the details of the recent events.

Mr. Shafaei also met with Shushan Khachyan, a child rights officer in the NGOs Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), a coalition of international non-governmental organizations working to facilitate the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRC Group assists national NGOs in the preparation of the alternative reports. It also provides training and communication for NGOs with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The meeting discussed Bahrain’s official report on the rights of the child recently presented by the Government, which is expected to be discussed again with UN experts in 2011. with the meeting also discussed the possibility of involving Bahrainis NGOs in the preparation of the alternative report.

On the other hand, BHRM’s President also met with Isabelle Scherer, the Director of the International Service for Human Rights, an organization which is concerned with providing assistance to human rights defenders through training and information on the various UN mechanisms in human rights field, and the most effective means for using them to promote and protect human rights in their countries.

Mr. Shafaei also met with a number of Bahraini human rights defenders, including Abdulanbi Alekri, the President of Bahrain Transparency Society, and Abdulla Alderazi, the Secretary-General of the Bahrain Human Rights Society. The meeting focused on the future cooperation as well as the developments of human rights in Bahrain. Also, he met with Mr. Eric Sottas, the Secretary General of the OMCT (World Organization against Torture) and Said Benarbia, a legal officer for the Middle East and North Africa in the International Commission of Jurists.

On 23 April 2009, Mr. Shafaei participated in a meeting for the Arab human rights NGOs on combating racism, organized by the Arab Committee for Human Rights, in which the situations of human rights in Palestine were discussed. Among the participants of this meeting were the Committee’s President Dr. Violet Dagher, several Arab human rights defenders and a number of Rabbis who support the Palestinian cause and are involved in combating Zionism and racism.

Hasan Shafaei also had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Dagher, Ameer Makhoul, the Director-General of the Union of Arab Civil Societies; Mohammed Zeidan, the General Director of the Arab Association for Human Rights in Palestine; Rabi Ahron Cohen; Usama Halabi, a Palestinian activist from the occupied territories; and Dr. George Jabbour, an independent expert in the UN Human Rights Council.