Geneva - Six new members have joined the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor board of trustees, adding much-needed expertise and credentials in international law, women’s studies, foreign relations, sociology and political science from Europe, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Euro-Med Monitor is a youth-led nonprofit organization that advocates for the human rights of all persons across Europe and the MENA region, particularly those who live under occupation, in the throes of war or political unrest, and/ or have been displaced due to persecution or armed conflict. Its board of trustees is headed by Prof. Richard Falk, an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Falk to a six-year term as a special rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.’

“Each of our new members will strengthen the board’s ability to provide crucial governing guidance to Euro-Med Monitor, as well as raise the organization’s visibility as it works to expose human rights violations among occupied and oppressed peoples in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa,” says Prof. Falk.

Among the new members are Celso Amorim, Brazil’s longest-serving foreign minister (1993-94 and 2003-2010) and now chair of UNITAID (a global health initiative that works to prevent, diagnose and treat major diseases in low- and middle-income countries); Christine Chinkin, emeritus professor of international law and founding director of the Centre of Women Peace & Security at the London School of Economics; and Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American legal scholar and human rights attorney who is co-founding editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic magazine on the Middle East.

Dr. Ramy Abdu, founder and chairman of Euro-Med Monitor, adds that “the new members of the board have broad and unique expertise on human rights, the MENA region and Europe, and will help unleash the organization’s full potential, expanding our outreach and credibility in the international arena. Today’s expansion of our board of trustees renews our commitment to objectivity, transparency and tireless advocacy for the rights of all people across Europe and the MENA region.”