Human Rights NGO Tied to Global Muslim Brotherhood Addresses UN Human Rights Council

On 23 March 2022, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Brus­sels-based human rights NGO Euro­pean Net­work Against Racism (ENAR) deliv­ered a vir­tu­al address to the 49th ses­sion of the UN Human Rights Coun­cil.  Accord­ing to a post on the ENAR website:

We call the Council’s atten­tion to the human rights sit­u­a­tion of Africans and oth­er racialised groups fol­low­ing reports of dis­crim­i­na­tion and vio­lence at EU bor­ders. As expressed joint­ly by Spe­cial Pro­ce­dures includ­ing the UN Work­ing Group of Experts on Peo­ple of African Descent and oth­er Spe­cial Rap­por­teurs with a man­date on racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and the human rights of migrants, we are deeply con­cerned that Black peo­ple and oth­er racialised groups are sub­ject­ed to dis­crim­i­na­to­ry treat­ment as they flee Ukraine and face sub­se­quent dis­crim­i­na­to­ry treat­ment with­in the EU.

Read the rest here.

The state­ment was deliv­ered by ENAR Senior Research Offi­cer Ojeaku Nwabu­zo, who has been work­ing for the orga­ni­za­tion since 2014. Nwabu­zo called on the Coun­cil to work towards stop­ping what she called the dehu­man­iza­tion of peo­ple of African descent and “oth­er racial­ized groups” at the Euro­pean bor­ders in light of the cur­rent Ukrain­ian refugee crisis.

The under­ly­ing doc­u­ment was co-signed by a coali­tion of over 60 civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions that includ­ed sev­er­al groups tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB):

• Euro­pean Forum of Mus­lim Women, affil­i­at­ed with the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims (CEM), the umbrel­la group rep­re­sent­ing the GMB in Europe

• Forum of Euro­pean Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO) the youth/student arm of the CEM

• Euro­pean Net­work On Reli­gion And Belief, an ENAR mem­ber with ties to the GMB in Europe

ENAR is an asso­ci­a­tion of over 150 NGOs describ­ing itself as “the voice of the anti-racist move­ment in Europe” and has met with high-lev­el EU offi­cials, includ­ing the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Coor­di­na­tor on Com­bat­ing Anti-Mus­lim Hatred. For­mer ENAR Direc­tor Michaël Priv­ot, who in 2008 open­ly acknowl­edged that he was a mem­ber of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, has served in lead­ing posi­tions in sev­er­al orga­ni­za­tions tied to the GMB, includ­ing as a  board mem­ber of FEMYSO. In 2019, ENAR was one of 21 sig­na­to­ries to an open let­ter pub­lished by a self-described “infor­mal Euro­pean coali­tion against Islam­o­pho­bia,” which, accord­ing to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch, was com­prised main­ly of orga­ni­za­tions and one indi­vid­ual tied to the GMB in Europe.

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) has cov­ered past instances of ENAR lob­by­ing for mea­sures against racism at the supra- and inter­na­tion­al lev­el, includ­ing demands that future EU anti-ter­ror­ism leg­is­la­tion con­sid­ers its impact on groups ENAR believes are at height­ened risk of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion. In March 2022, the GIOR report­ed that ENAR par­tic­i­pat­ed in this year’s edi­tion of the annu­al “Euro­pean Anti-Racism Sum­mit,” which fea­tured sev­er­al high-lev­el EU offi­cials. In April 2022, the GIOR report­ed that ENAR lead­ers had par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al meet­ing with the Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment to dis­cuss the parliament’s role in com­bat­ting racism.