Six Syrian nationals are currently at risk of being deported from Lebanon to Syria where they could face torture. If implemented, their deportation would constitute a serious breach of Lebanon’s obligation of non-refoulement.
Today, on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we the 33 undersigned local, regional, and international organizations, associations, and networks come together to highlight the dramatic and persistent nature of enforced disappearances in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the accompanying impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of these crimes throughout the region.
More than 60 civil society organisations, individuals and Sudanese actors call on the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan to transfer without delay former president Omar al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, and Abdel Raheem Muhammed Hussein to the International Criminal Court.
On August 4, 2021, several organisations called on members of the U.S. Congress and the Biden administration to use their leverage to ensure that the Egyptian president immediately halts the imminent execution of 12 men sentenced to death in a mass trial in relation to the Raba’a sit-in case and promptly ends the use of all unjust death sentences.
Following the revelations on the Pegasus project, which has been used to target human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, and to facilitate human rights violations, a group of 30 NGOs call for an immediate end to the use, sale and transfer of surveillance technology to the governments of the Middle East and North Africa countries that systematically violate international human rights law.
Several organisations urge the U.S. government to take action against Egypt’s attempts to repress rights and freedoms in Egypt and stigmatise the work of Egyptian human rights defenders both nationally and abroad. They call on the U.S. administration to condemn Egypt’s efforts to silence Egyptian-American human rights advocate and former political prisoner Mohamed Soltan.
A global coalition urges the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mohamed El Baqer, the founder of the Adalah Centre for Rights and Freedoms. He has been arbitrarily detained for more than 21 months without charge or trial for his human rights work.
More than 60 human rights organisations signed a letter to urge Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to repeal the verdict against Ahmed Amir Santawy. The Egyptian-Austrian student and researcher was sentenced by an emergency court to four years in prison on charges of publishing “false news”. He had been criticising human rights violations and the government’s mishandling of the pandemic on social media.
While the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has long enjoyed the reputation of a place of tolerance and respect for free expression, over the course of 2020 and 2021, the Kurdish authorities have increasingly cracked down on demonstrators, activists, journalists and other critics. In February 2021, five journalist and activists who are known to be critical of the government were sentenced to six years’ in prison. Their sentence was recently upheld on appeal.
11 CSOs called on several UN Special Procedures mandate holders to urgently intervene in relation to the recent death of Palestinian political activist and human rights defender Nizar Banat in the custody of the Palestinian Authority and the latter’s widespread and systematic human rights violations targeting critics.
Following the devastating passing of prominent Emirati human rights defender Alaa Al Siddiq, MENA Rights Group joined partner NGOs in expressing our deepest condolences to her family, friends and colleagues.
