MENA Rights Group provides a summary of the UNSG's main concerns over reprisals against human rights defenders in the MENA region, particularly in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen.
On the occasion of the UN's 79th session, MENA Rights Group joined 28 civil society organisations in urging UN Member States to advocate for the release of human rights defenders opposition leaders, death row inmates, and all those who remain unfairly imprisoned in Bahrain during the high-level General Debate.
Following a request for Opinion filed by MENA Rights Group and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) found that the detention of a Saudi businessman who participated in protests in the Qatif region of Saudi Arabia, violates international human rights law and qualifies as “arbitrary”.
MENA Rights Group joins NGOs in calling on partners of Saudi Arabia to monitor the ongoing trial of Salma al-Shehab and Nourah al-Qahtani, who are sentenced to 27 and 35 years in prison for their social media activity.
MENA Rights Group joins 30+ NGOS in calling on Saudi authorities to immediately free those arbitrarily detained ahead of the Internet Governance Forum which will take place in Riyadh from 15 to 19 December 2024.
Following Saudi Arabia's response to recommendations made during its Universal Periodic Review, a coalition of 7 human rights organisations urge Saudi authorities to grant independent international observers and NGOs access to the country, and that they extend invitations to, and accept visits from, UN special procedures mandate holders.
MENA Rights Group, The Committee for Justice (CFJ), and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) renewed their call on the Sub-Committee on Accreditation to downgrade the status of Egypt's National Human Rights Institution for its lack of compliance with the Paris Principles, namely independence.
On July 5, 2024, the UN Human Rights Council met to adopt the outcome report for Jordan’s Universal Periodic Review. MENA Rights Group, Front Line Defenders and the Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in MENA delivered a joint oral statement condemning the Jordanian government's repression of civic space in the context of the Gaza war.
With CSO partners, MENA Rights Group call for the release of all those unjustly imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for their opinions and beliefs, and for an end to the imposition of travel bans, which are illegal in both international and domestic Saudi law.
Following its fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia informed the Human Rights Council of its decision to accept 83% of the recommendations it had received. While Saudi Arabia accepted the majority of recommendations, it rejected critical ones, notably on the release of political prisoners and the increasing use of the death penalty.
On 1 July 2024, during the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, professor Mouloud Boumghar delivered a joint statement on behalf of 14 organisations during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. He addressed the crackdown on fundamental freedoms by the Algerian authorities and called them to repeal repressive laws.
