Mahmoud AbuRahma

Mahmoud AbuRahma is a doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Center at the University of Ghent,. He is part of the ERC-funded GROUNDOC project. Focusing on Palestine, his research explores how innovations in documentation by civil society and grassroots actors help keep up with elevated stress resulted from mass atrocities as well as restrictions on access, hostility and a culture of impunity.

Using a critical, decolonial framework, the research re-examines how documentation practices could reshape the goals and methods of transitional justice toward a liberation approach around which civil society actors could coalesce.

Mahmoud is a human rights practitioner with over 20 years of experience in international relations, advocacy and litigation in Palestine and the wider Euro-Med region. Before joining the Human Rights Center, he served as the Director of International Relations at the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights for over 18 years, where he played a lead role in documentation, advocacy and litigation efforts. He also served as the Programme Manager at the European Network Against Racism (2022-2025).

Mahmoud holds a Master degree in the Human Rights Theory and Practice from the University of Essex, UK (2007), a Bachelor degree in English language and literature from the An-Najah University, Palestine (1995). He was a research fellow at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at York University (2012-2014).