Maat for peace has organized a meeting with a group of Lebanese university students to discuss their contribution to advancing development processes and respecting human rights, at Al-Hikma University in Beirut, in coordination with the administration of the university’s Faculty of Law.

The lecture highlighted the development and comprehensiveness of the concept of security and its connection with the concepts of development and human rights. The discussion also touched on the concept of security adopted by the United Nations in 2012, which stipulated that “security is the right of individuals to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair,” stressing that there can’t be sustainable security in all its forms, including food, environmental, health, personal and societal security, without pushing towards a comprehensive respect for human rights.

The participants reviewed the key challenges facing them as Arab youth, stressing the need to be involved in decision-making processes and planning for development processes. The most significant outcomes of this meeting were as follows:

- Despite the efforts made, there is an urgent need for more human rights education and training programs within the framework of non-formal education among Arab peers.

- The necessity of exchanging experiences and best practices among Arab youth towards promoting integrative efforts at the regional level and involving them in all stages of development processes, from planning and design to implementation and follow-up.

- Intensifying cooperation between Arab countries, not only at the governmental level, but also at the level of civil society organizations, research centers and educational institutions to address common challenges in national development and human rights contexts.

It is worth noting that this meeting was organized on the sidelines of Maat’s participation in the regional conference for Arabic-speaking countries on the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights, held in Lebanon.

Al-Hikma University is a Lebanese university, established by Decree No. 1947 in 1999, but the University’s Higher Faculty of Law dates back to 1875.The university contains a group of multidisciplinary faculties, most notably the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations, the faculty of Theological and Religious Sciences, and the faculty of Business and Finance.