September 30, 2025
From left to right: Nedal al-Salman, Lina al-Hathloul, Jihane Ben Yahia, Lucy McKernan, Kifaya Khraim, and Tanya Boulakovski on the use of security and counter-terrorism measures to carry out reprisals in the MENA during an event at the UN human rights council in Geneva on September 25, 2025. © MENA Rights Group.
On September 25, 2025, on the margin of the 60th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, and following the presentation of the UN Secretary-General’s 2025 annual report on intimidation and reprisals for cooperation with the UN, MENA Rights Group co-organised a side event (watch here) with the Global Center on Cooperative Security, co-sponsored by CIVICUS and the International Service for Human Rights, highlighting the abuse of security and counter-terrorism measures to carry out reprisals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The panel discussion brought together UN Special Procedures mandate holders, human rights defenders from across the MENA, and civil society representatives. These included Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Saudi activist Lina al-Hathloul, Kifaya Khraim from Palestinian NGO Women’s Centre For Legal Aid And Counselling (WCLAC), Bahraini activist Nedal al-Salman from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Lucy McKernan, UN Deputy Director at Human Rights Watch, as well as MENA Rights Group’s Human Rights Officer Tanya Boulakovski. The discussion was moderated by Jihane Ben Yahia from the Global Center on Cooperative Security.
To open the discussion, Mary Lawlor explained in a video intervention that the MENA region has been the most affected by reprisals against individuals and groups engaging with the UN, accounting for approximately 29% of all cases documented in the UNSG’s annual reports since 2010. She stated that most reprisal cases in the region appear to be connected to the use by state authorities of counter-terrorism and national security legislation frameworks as tools to target human rights defenders (HRDs) and civil society, including through fabricated accusations.
Tanya Boulakovski presented the findings of MENA Rights Group’s new report which analyses 296 cases documented by the UNSG over the past 15 years across the region. The research exposes the connection between two alarming trends: the MENA is a global hotspot for reprisals, and authorities systematically abuse “terrorism” and “security” accusations to target and silence human rights defenders, peaceful critics, and NGOs. She provided the audience with key figures, including that more than six in ten cases of reprisals in the MENA are connected to counter-terrorism or security frameworks, and that in seven MENA countries, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman, Somalia, Lebanon and Tunisia, there is a complete correlation between documented reprisals cases and security measures. According to her, accusations of terrorism or threats to security have become repressive governments’ tool of choice to punish those who dare speak to the UN about human rights violations.
Lucy McKernan then shared examples from Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Tunisia, to highlight common methods used by authorities for reprisals, including the application of “vague and abusive laws” to detain, prosecute, and punish human rights defenders and civil society activists, as well as the use of “broad terrorism charges that violate their rights to freedom of expression and association.”
Through the story of her sister Loujain, a prominent Saudi women’s rights activist, Lina al-Hathloul illustrated what reprisals can look like in practice. Loujain was arrested, forcibly disappeared, brutally tortured, sentenced under counter-terrorism laws, imprisoned for years, and subjected to an illegal travel ban: all because of her advocacy in leading the women-to-drive campaign and efforts to abolish the male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia. Al-Hathloul emphasised the need to recognise the hardship and violence caused by travel bans, noting that their impact can be as severe as imprisonment, particularly when activists remain under restrictions even after the official term has expired and despite having a clean criminal record.
In her intervention, Nedal al-Salman shed light on acts of reprisals in Bahrain, drawing on her own experiences as a human rights defender subjected to a three-year travel ban for participating in UN fora. She explained that several Bahraini HRDs, including herself, have been targeted through surveillance technology like Pegasus, which enables systemic silencing and creates an environment where fear of reprisals is normalised, especially in a context where Bahrain’s human rights issues are frequently overlooked, both in the media and by international organizations.
Kifaya Khraim concluded by illustrating the systematic targeting of women defenders reporting on the human rights situation in Palestine, drawing on cases documented by WCLAC. She explained that these defenders face threatening calls from Israeli military officials, are coerced into attending interrogations, with the risk of detention for themselves and their families if they fail to appear, and endure sexual violence in detention, with a staggering 80% of detained women human rights defenders subjected to such abuse.
In a video intervention, Special Rapporteur Gina Romero noted that the weaponisation of counter-terrorism and other similar frameworks against civil society, activists, and collective action has become a trend worldwide. She stressed that such practices are creating a profound impact on societies. In her words: “Freedom of assembly and of association are enabling rights, they are at the centre of the defence of rights and therefore, when assembly and association are at risks, all rights are harmed.”
After opening the floor to questions from the audience, each panellist delivered concluding remarks and shared recommendations to prevent and remedy the spread of reprisals carried out under the guise of counter-terrorism and security. These included calls for states to speak out and impose a political cost for human rights abuses, the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy, and the imperative “for the UN system and the international community to critically reassess whether the global fight against terrorism as it’s been shaped since 9/11 has delivered on its promises, or whether it has instead legitimise repression and caused irreparable harm, and [...] to reconsider, not just how counter-terrorism is implemented, but whether it can continue to exist in its current form at all”, in Boulakovski’s words.
