A regional training course in Morocco based on UN documents led by regional NGO Karama aims to enhance civil society and gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa.

Karama, based in Cairo with operations in several countries, is organising a three-day workshop and roundtable in collaboration with the UN Fund for Gender Equality to train 21 participants to use and apply international human rights instruments and strategies to defend the rights of women in their respective countries.

Civil society groups from Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Morocco are joining the training that begins 9 January. 

The training will focus in particular on tools and points addressed in the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and the 1979 Convention on the Elimination All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), also known as the international bill for the rights of women. The conference will examine other important protocols.

In the roundtable, participants will discuss challenges faced by their own projects back home.

Karama, founded by Hibaaq Osman, aims to build upon and strengthen approaches to raising and expanding the influence of Arab women as leaders in regional and international contexts.