This month, July 2020, the OCHR celebrates its third anniversary since starting operations in its present format.
- In February 2013 the Centre was set up in Beirut as “the Omani Monitor for Human Rights” to monitor and document human rights violations in Oman.
- In January 2014 the Centre/Monitor issued the first annual report documenting rights violations in Oman.
- After four years of monitoring and documenting violations and publishing annual reports, the Monitor’s name was changed to “Omani Centre for Human Rights”.
- In July 2017 the new Centre started work, having expanded its activities to include awareness-raising along with monitoring and documentation.
Here’s a brief summary of its main achievements:
- The OCHR has highlighted a variety of human rights issues, such as women’s rights, enforced disappearances, democracy, civil rights, labour rights, the plight of female domestic workers, citizenship and nationality, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of religion or belief, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of the press, domestic and family violence, and other important topics.
- It has published almost a hundred pieces of audiovisual content on its YouTube channel ochoroman.
- The Centre has hosted two soirées entitled “One activist’s personal experience of human rights”.
- It conducted a media campaign calling for release of the Musandam detainees.
- The OCHR has made analytical studies of several topics and laws, such as the Omani Penal Code.
- In July 2017 the Centre launched the English section of the new website it had inaugurated in April that year.
- The Centre has taken part in a number of human rights conferences at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
- It continues to collaborate and liaise with major human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
- The OCHR has received hundreds of reports complaining of human rights violations in Oman.
- It has met a number of European diplomats, such as a former Dutch Assistant Foreign Minister and the Human Rights Ambassador in France.
- The Centre has held meetings with international legal and human rights experts.
- It has made a submission to Oman’s forthcoming Third Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2021.
As it embarks on its fourth year of activity, the Centre will be continuing to implement the same programmes and plans with the addition of new ones.
Please get in touch with us to suggest any new ideas…
In Arabic: www.ochroman.org
In English: www.ochroman.org/eng
