The Arab Council Foundation is a non-profit organization, established in Switzerland on February 28th, 2022 and registered with the commercial register of Geneva under the number CHE-228.730.069. The foundation enjoys tax exemption and operates in the legitimate interest established by its statutes.
The organization brings together several recognized Arab personalities who have fought for democracy, freedom, and human rights. Its president is Dr. Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, former president of the Republic of Tunisia. He is assisted by Ms. Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2011, as well as Dr. Ayman Nour, leader of the Egyptian democratic opposition.
The Foundation is the extension of the experience of the “Arab Council for the Defense of Democratic Revolutions”, created in 2014 at the initiative of these personalities and with the participation of a number of Arab democratic figures. For several years, it has been working on intellectual activities, symposiums, conferences, dialogue workshops, and exchange of experiences between political actors and civil society in the countries of the “Arab Spring”.
1. Founders:
The Arab Council Foundation is composed of the following personalities:
• President: Dr. Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, former president of the Tunisian Republic from 2011 to 2014, a politician, human rights defender, neurologist, and author of over 20 books. He received the Maghreb Prize in medicine for his research on brain damage in disabled children, as well as the Arab Medical Conference Prize for his book “Entry to Integrated Medicine”. He chaired the Tunisian League of Human Rights and founded the political party “Congress for the Republic” and the “Tunisia Al Irada Movement”.
• Vice President: Ms. Tawakkol Karman, human rights activist and political journalist. She played a key role in the Yemeni youth popular revolution in 2011. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, for her leadership in peaceful (nonviolent) struggle and resistance to authoritarianism, corruption, and repression. At the age of 32, Ms. Karman became the first Arab woman and the youngest person to win the Nobel Prize at the time. She became one of the leaders in the Middle East in the fight against political persecution and the promotion of a culture of nonviolence as a tool for institutional change.
• Vice President: Dr. Ayman Nour, Egyptian lawyer, politician, and journalist with liberal orientation. Elected president of the Egyptian National Forces Union and leader of the “Ghad al-Thawra” party. Former Secretary-General of the “Wafd” party and former member of parliament in the People’s Assembly for several parliamentary sessions. He participated in the Egyptian presidential elections in 2005 against Mohamed Hosni Mubarak and came in second according to official figures. He was arrested four and a half years after the presidential election. He founded Al Sharq television, defender of freedom and democracy in Egypt, and has been the president of the Federation of Egyptian National Forces since its creation.
• The executive team is leaded by Imad Daimi, engineer, political and human rights activist, former parliamentarian and member of the Constituent Assembly elected after the Revolution in Tunisia. He was also a deputy in Tunisia from 2014 to 2019 and held the position of Director of the Cabinet of the former President of the Tunisian Republic. In addition, he is also the President of the Tunisian organization “Observatoire Raqabah” active in the fight against corruption and the promotion of transparency and good governance.
2. Main Objectives of the Arab Council Foundation :
The Arab Council Foundation aims to promote a culture of democracy, dialogue, and equality among citizens, particularly gender equality, in the Arab world. It also advocates for human rights in all Arab countries and around the world, emphasizing fundamental individual and collective freedoms.
Another important objective of the Foundation is to combat all forms of violence and discrimination in the Arab region and the world. It also supports democratic transformation processes and coordination among the forces of change in the Arab world, to share common experiences and reflections on economic, social, and climate challenges, among others.
Furthermore, the Foundation works towards impartial and independent justice in the Arab world and leads efforts to defend, promote, and implement human rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also commits to fighting impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region.
In summary, the Arab Council Foundation works to promote human rights, democracy, and equality in the Arab region, while combating violence, discrimination, and impunity. It strives to strengthen coordination among the forces of change in the region and support ongoing democratic transformation processes.
3. Strategic Plan: Four-Axis Plan
At the creation of the Foundation, the Foundation Council approved a two-year integrated work program, which includes a multitude of activities divided into four axes: the Forum, the Observatory, Strategic Litigation, and the Academy. The plan is called in Arabic the 4 “Mims” (the letter M in Arabic), for ‘Montada’: forum; ‘Mirsad’: Observatory; ‘Mouhassaba’: Judgment (strategic litigation); ‘Madrassa’: school (Academy).
The “Forum” axis focuses on promoting democracy, citizen participation, and gender equality. It aims to create a space for dialogue, exchange of experiences, and common reflection among various civil society actors and policymakers who believe in change.
The “Observatory” axis focuses on strategic monitoring and anticipation of developments in the Arab region, through position assessments, analytical and prospective studies, and through the annual report on the reality and state of democracy in the Arab region, and reports on current topics.
The “strategic litigation” axis aims to support just causes and fight against serious violations of the rights of people in the region, by preparing reports and cooperating with local parties to prepare documented violation cases to be filed with competent authorities, while working in a network with local and international human rights defense organizations.
The Academy is an online training and education program that aims to strengthen the capacities of civil society actors, human rights activists, and young leaders. It offers training programs on human rights, democracy, gender equality, and democratic transition processes in the Arab world.
4. Previous activities
Since its creation in 2014, the Council has organized several events, including dialogue workshops, intellectual seminars, international conferences, and several media events for the leaders of the Council. The dialogue workshops organized at the Council’s headquarters in Istanbul from 2015 to 2019 evaluated the trajectories of democratic transition in the region and exchanged experiences on several common issues for the countries of the Arab Spring, such as political reforms in the region and constitution-making, the risks of foreign intervention, the conditions of coexistence between different currents of thought in the region, and the outcome of transitional justice in post-revolution countries of the Arab Spring.
The first conference, entitled “The Arabs of the Future, from a Nation of Subjects to a Nation of Citizens”, was held in Istanbul on March 16, 2019. More than 170 thinkers and politicians participated, and discussed the future of the Arabs, the transition to a nation of citizens, and the challenges this entails.
The second conference was held on February 26, 2021, entitled “The Arab Spring: Lessons from the Experience and Challenges for the Future”, in the presence of prominent political and intellectual figures. In the conference, in-depth critical analyses of the evolution of the Arab Spring, ten years after the start of the revolutions, were presented. It also proposed future perspectives for Arab peoples, taking into account the major challenges they face.
A virtual conference “Democracy First in the Arab World” organized by the Arab Council was held on December 3, 2021, and brought together nearly 200 Arab personalities defending democracy, including politicians, lawyers, and intellectuals from various Arab countries and the Arab diaspora. The conference issued a statement on the occasion of the democracy summit organized by President Biden in the United States on December 8-9, 2021. The President of the Arab Council, Dr. Marzouki, and Ms. Tawakkol Karman, presented this statement to the American and international public opinion during a press conference organized at the National Press Club in Washington on December 6, 2021.