The Euro-Mediterranean Civil Forum urges the region’s leaders to demand that Israel comply with international law

The Euro-Mediterranean Civil Forum, which ended this Sunday in Alicante, has agreed to ask the leaders of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) to demand that Israel ‘respect international resolutions to put an end to the occupation and colonisation of Palestine’.

The forum’s final document contains other recommendations encouraging the promotion of equality between individuals – in particular between men and women – and between the region’s states. The recommendations will be presented to the UfM summit which is taking place on 7 June in Barcelona.

The forum – organised by the non-governmental platform, Euromed, in collaboration with Casa Mediterráneo, the European Commission and the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry – states that the international community must ‘impose full respect for the resolutions on the Israeli authorities’ and asks all Euro-Mediterranean countries ‘to adopt appropriate sanctions immediately’.

The final declaration states that the progress of democracy, in particular in the Southern Mediterranean, ‘requires an end to the conflicts which hinder the region’s stability’, most especially the Middle East conflict.

Another of central issue of the three-day meeting in which some 250 people took part was equality, both between men and women and between individuals of different origins and conditions, such as between the 43 countries which make up the UfM.

The forum recommends ‘promoting equality between men and women in all of the European Union’s foreign policy, as well as in the action plans of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the review and suspension clauses of the Association Agreements and in the UfM’s programmes and projects.’

It also emphasises the importance of applying mechanisms to ensure that all commitments with regard to human rights, good governance and democracy are respected in the UfM countries. The need to ‘prohibit any form of discrimination for reasons of origin, religion or sexual orientation’ is also ‘urgently’ stressed.

The final document also sets out ‘a demand for equality between the peoples’ of the region and ‘the need for a Euro-Mediterranean partnership’ which is not solely based on economic projects.

Finally, those taking part emphasised the need to confront the inequality between countries in terms of access to resources and stressed the importance of the UfM defining a regional strategy on climate change.