WSF Online Meeting – The Human and Environmental Cost of the Middle East Crisis: Implications for Europe and the Need for Immediate Action, 23 March 2026
On 23 March 2026, the Women for a Sustainable Future (WSF) network convened an urgent online roundtable to address the rapidly escalating crisis in the Middle East and its far-reaching consequences for regional stability and Europe. The meeting was held in direct response to requests from WANA-region members to engage with their European counterparts at this critical moment.
The session was led by three speakers: Dr Iyad Abumoghli, Founder and Chair of Al-Mizan and former Director of UNEP's Faith for Earth Coalition; Dr Hoda Al-Helaissi, former member of the Shura Council of Saudi Arabia and former member of the International Parliamentary Union; and Dr Halimeh Kaakour, Member of the Lebanese Parliament and professor of International Public Law and Human Rights. The meeting brought together parliamentarians, senior diplomats, civil society leaders, environmental experts, legal practitioners, and journalists from Egypt, Finland, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yemen.
The discussion examined the conflict as one of the most consequential geopolitical crises of the 21st century, with speakers tracing the long history of external military intervention in the region and the implications of the current escalation, including US military operations in Iran, for global energy systems, trade routes, food supply chains, and migration flows into Europe. A major focus was the devastating and often-overlooked environmental toll of the conflict: the contamination of water systems and agricultural land, the release of toxic compounds into soils and air, and what speakers described as a "toxic landscape in formation" whose consequences, chronic disease, contaminated food chains, and ecological collapse, will persist for generations.
Participants also raised the gendered dimensions of the crisis, including the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and the risk that accountability for gender-based violence will be sidelined in any future peace process. The role of European policymakers was a key theme, with participants calling for a more principled engagement grounded in international law and challenging the double standards applied in international responses to the conflict. The discussion reaffirmed the importance of sustained WANA–Europe dialogue, and participants agreed to reconvene as the situation continues to evolve.