- Democracy and community development
- Human rights
- International/Cultural relations
- Religion
- Research
- Youth and education
The Network aims to disseminate the culture, values and concepts of tolerance and to counter fundamentalism, violence and division, trends seen throughout Arab countries today. The Network’s stated goal is to “actively contribute to building more tolerant societies in the Arab world”. It promotes a moderate, secular and effective movement in the Arab countries that can positively influence and develop a variety of sectors in the Arab world, including education, civil society and media.
The Network works towards:
• finding ways to challenge destructive fundamentalist trends and approaches
• reaching marginalized groups with the values of tolerance and human rights
• revitalizing conventional approaches to human rights and good governance by introducing the concepts of tolerance and diversity into these discourses.
The Network conducts conferences, workshops, studies and reports, all in order to improve both the situation and knowledge of tolerance and human rights in the region. It also gives the Arab Network Award to persons especially involved in promoting tolerance in the region; in this context, the award has been given to persons from Lebanon, Morocco as well as to the Egyptian and Tunisian youth in connection with the Arab Spring.
In the last years, the Network for example conducted training for trainers on tolerance, together with local partners, in six Arab countries. It also supported tolerance training for young people in Beirut.
The Arab Network of Tolerance serves as a forum for activists, youth, scholars and media to come together to fight radicalism and fanatism by supporting a culture of tolerance in the region. Its aims are closely linked to those of many ALF network members; in cooperating and coordinating with other members of the network, we will be able to contribute to the intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean region.
The Arab Network for Tolerance aims at strengthening tolerance throughout the Arab region. As such, we work with several local partners and organizations in order to extend our work to the Arab world. The Arab Network for Tolerance, as stated above, was founded by the Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies which itself has been a member of the ALF network for several years. Through joining the Anna Lindh Foundation Network, the Arab Network for Tolerance could expand and strengthen its cooperation and exchange with other groups in the region.