Meet Faten Sourani: The Palestinian Human Rights Activist Making Ireland’s Voice Heard
Meet Faten Sourani: The Palestinian Human Rights Activist Making Ireland’s Voice Heard
Let’s face it, the EU isn’t where it needs to be right now. However, with Ireland assuming the EU Presidency in July, this is our chance to make our voices heard and to call on the EU to stand up for the values it was founded on. In collaboration with a group of activists, European Movement Ireland is running a campaign calling for EU values to be front and centre of Ireland’s EU Presidency. For “The Europe We Value” highlights various issues such as Europe’s position on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, upholding democracy, human dignity, equality, and the rule of law.
Faten Sourani, one of the campaign’s EU Values Champions, is a Palestinian human rights activist who works to uphold the rights of Palestinian people in what has been a catastrophic era for the nation. Israel’s genocide in Palestine has directly undermined the core values of the EU, reduced trust in the European Union as an institution and exposed the moral biases within the walls of the EU Institutions.
Preceding Israel’s escalation in Gaza in 2023, Faten worked on advocating for women’s rights and freedoms. Since 2024, she has worked for one of Ireland’s biggest charities, Trócaire, where she continues to advocate for justice and accountability for the Palestinians and for Ireland to enact the Occupied Territories Bill. Now, drawing on almost a decade of human rights expertise, she is advocating for the human rights of the Palestinian people to be front and centre during Ireland’s EU Presidency.
Working with Faten and other EU Values Champions, European Movement Ireland is calling for the EU to stand up for the values that make us all proud to be European. Human rights lawyers, women’s rights activists, equality campaigners, Irish language experts, migrant rights advocates, and many others are coming together under one banner to reassert the values on which the EU was built.
If you want to learn more about The For the Europe We Value campaign.
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