Workshop on Librarianship and Human Rights in the Arab World

The Institute of Law at Birzeit University participated in a workshop on Librarianship and Human Rights in the Arab World organised by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the Arab Academic Human Rights Network (AAHRN) through its partner in Jordan – the University of Jordan. The workshop targeted librarians from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
This workshop aimed towards enhancing awareness amongst universities’ librarians, from across the MENA region, on how to establish and/or maintain a human rights library, while also strengthening the network of librarians in the MENA region. Furthermore, the workshop sought to encourage librarians to increase, consolidate and post library resources on human rights on the web, as well as to rejuvenate communication between AAHRN members.

In the opening ceremony, University of Jordan Library Director Dr. Mohannad Mubaidin highlighted significance of human rights issues. “Human rights are no longer a luxury or a tool of image enhancement, but are essential for human contact.” Dr. Mubaidin emphasised that libraries “are responsible for providing access to all resources and databases on various human rights issues to researchers, human rights defenders and interested public.

Dr. Mahasen al Jaghoub, AAHRN Coordinator in Jordan and Deputy Dean of the University of Jordan’s Faculty of Law, announced that the workshop was one in a series of seminars organised by the AAHRN. Including five Arab universities, this workshop “aims to promote human rights teaching and research at partner universities.” Dr. Al Jaghoub highlighted the importance of providing library resources on human rights, encouraging librarians to manage library collections, and promoting communication through the AAHRN website for a greater benefit.

A select number of librarians and human rights activists took part in this two-day workshop. These included Saša Madacki, University of Sarajevo Human Rights Centre; Sa’d Amer, from the Institute of Law at Birzeit University; and Tawfiq ar Rahmouni al Idrisi, from Hasan II University, Casablanca, Morocco.
Several papers were presented by the University of Jordan Library, including by Eman al Umari, Technical Department Director; Issam al Hamdan, Head of Computer Applications Unit; and Amani Hamarshah, Cataloguing and Classification Department.