Twenty graduands in Human Rights from different countries around the Mediterranean including North Africa and the Near East are meeting in Malta to set up an Alumni Association. Countries represented include Palestine, Lebanon, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan and Malta.

The Mediterranean Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation is a one-year multi-disciplinary programme coordinated by the Foundation for International Studies at the University of Malta on behalf of a partnership of Universities and Human Rights institutions from around the Mediterranean.

One of the aims of the programme is to facilitate the setting up of the Alumni Association by convening an inaugural meeting, held last Saturday at the aula magna of the FIS. Funds for the travel and participation of a number of representative alumni were made available for this purpose, however, all past graduands of the Masters degree were invited to help set up the association and many accepted this invitation. In the absence of a formal association, past graduands have been keeping in-touch informally; once the Alumni’s Association is set up, it will provide formal links between alumni of the programme and also link up with sister associations of the other regional Masters.

The Alumni Association’s network of all past graduands of the Mediterranean Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation will allow the Master’s programme to continue to bear fruit in the future and involve persons from different cultures and countries who, through their multiplier effect, will have an influence in their home countries in the building up of a human rights culture.