L’Association Libanaise pour l’Éducation et la Formation

Operational since 1996 (under the name of Nouveaux Droits de l'Homme-International) and officially registered in 2004, “L’Association Libanaise pour l’Éducation et la Formation (Lebanese Association for Education and Training) ” ALEF is a Lebanese Human Rights Non-Governmental Organization.

Mission

ALEF  believes in the absolute value of Human beings. Thus the ultimate “raison d’être” of any community structure is to reflect this belief in attitudes and actions. ALEF’s mission is to trigger and contribute to a cumulative process of change in values and attitudes incompatible with the universal values of Human Rights.

ALEF  is a non-sectarian politically independent association, which policy of action and values reflect the impartiality, and which works on monitoring, protecting and promoting Human Rights in Lebanon through education, training, advocacy and lobbying activities.

 In harmony with its mission statement, ALEF’s team has defined the following strategic goals for the long term:

·Becoming a think-tank in the field of Human Rights and related issues, not only to identify and denounce violations, but also to influence decision-makers in Lebanon and inform national policies on Human Rights-related matters.

·Changing the current perception that Human Rights issues are idealistic and elitist. Through ALEF’s projects, the Human Rights values will become part of the popular scale of values, applicable in every day’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviors.

·Sharing the experience acquired in Lebanon at the regional level, after consolidating the Lebanese structure.

Core values:

The following values are fundamental to us and guide our work

· Rights-based approach, firmly rooted in the universal standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human rights and other UN Conventions.

·Impartiality, as the key to credibility: ALEF strongly believes in the freedom of belief, conscience and religion. This of course applies to its volunteers and staff members. Moreover, ALEF encourages its members to be involved in political and civic activities and structures. However, ALEF adopts non-judgmental approach when handling Human rights issues.

· Efficiency: ALEF is an action- and result-oriented organization. Efficiency and delivery of impartial, innovative, and articulated outputs in a timely manner are the cornerstone of  ALEF’s credibility.

· Transparency & Accountability to our supporters, whose trust we earn and maintain through the effective and efficient use of their contributions. At ALEF, we also expect transparency and accountability from those we work with and we relate to in the community and among stakeholders, while actively promoting means of achieving this end.

·Commitment: ALEF is committed to defending, promoting and supporting human rights of individuals and communities.

ALEF  has defined the following Policy of Action:

· To operate on a needs & rights basis, always trying to propose projects in fields where other actors are not involved in order to avoid duplication.

· To empower civil society in the framework of the cumulative process of change through interacting with and building the capacity of other components of civil society.

· To involve, empower, and generate ownership of Human Rights value among the youth, whom  ALEFconsiders the main actors of change and a reservoir for volunteers as well as a potential factor for change.

·To defend and support victims of violations, while dedicating a special attention to most vulnerable groups, especially if their vulnerability is the result of social pressures or inequalities.

Scope of Action

Since 1997, ALEF has worked for the promotion and protection of human rights in Lebanon through several programs:

·Advocacy and Monitoring program through concerted actions based on tools such as reports, studies, and other publications on various human rights-related issues.

· Education and Training program through formal education on human rights courses delivered by ALEF resource persons in 3 faculties of 2 major Universities and in 2 vocational schools and through non-formal education consisting of customized courses to interested groups (political, social, cultural, religious…etc.), school clubs. The program also entails the production or co-production of human rights education training materials.

·Community Outrerach Program: it is through youth civic activism on human rights issues in Lebanon that youth participation in democratization of the society and empowerment of the rule of law is enhanced. While several tens of volunteers participate in the organization’s activities, youth is considered one of the primary target groups of human rights work, where we provide opportunities of civic engagement and further spread the culture of human rights. ALEF regularly adopts a community-based approach in its work, especially so in the Youth program to build the Youth’s capacity, but also in other programs and project, to reflect and mainstream the key principle of participation.

[1] ALEF’s team was active under the institutional name of Nouveaux Droits de l'Homme – International between 1996-and 2003