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Following reports that Project Associates, an advisory firm based in the U.K., was hired to promote the candidacy of Emirati official Ahmed Al Raisi to the presidency of INTERPOL, MENA Rights Group and 10 NGOs urged the company to terminate their relationship with the UAE government and Al Raisi. NGOs recalled the poor human rights record of the UAE, the continued abuses perpetrated by state security forces under Al Raisi’s leadership, and the multiple allegations of torture filed against him in France and the U.K.

On October 19, 2021, ALQST for Human Rights, DAWN and MENA Rights Group expressed their shock over the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Musa al-Qarni in Dhahban prison.

Human rights organizations are gravely concerned by the Lebanese authorities’ recent attempts to silence and discredit Mohammed Sablouh, a human rights lawyer defending victims of torture and Syrian refugees facing deportation. The actions of the Lebanese authorities represent an unacceptable infringement on the work of lawyers and other human rights defenders, in light of Lebanon’s […]

Government’s court case against RAJ threatens freedom of association.

37 NGOs have called on Member States of the UN General Assembly to sign on to a cross-regional joint statement on reprisals at the 76th session of the UNGA Third Committee.

From 1st October 2021 to March 2022, the UAE is hosting the Dubai Expo, the first World Expo to be held in the Arab World. The event will explore the issues of sustainability, mobility and opportunity. The country claims that “when the world comes together, we create a better tomorrow”. But “coming together to hear diverse […]

In a joint letter to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, more than 80 organisations appealed to the president of the Emirates to release all imprisoned human rights defenders and activists ahead of the UAE's Dubai Expo.

A coalition of eight rights-based organisations is calling on CNN, an official broadcaster of the Dubai Expo2020, to reveal all financial and contractual terms of its relationship with the UAE monarchy, "Dubai Expo2020," and of their “Dubai Now” promotional content. In their letter, the coalition also calls on CNN to commit to reporting on the UAE’s terrible human rights violations and their use of events like the “Expo 2020 Dubai” for propaganda purposes. If CNN is unable to meet the aforementioned requests, the coalition calls on CNN to immediately withdraw as an official broadcaster for the UAE Dubai Expo

During the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, over 90 civil society organisations called on Member States to urgently denounce and mandate independent investigations into the situation of human rights violations facilitated by the sale, export, transfer, and use of surveillance technology.

Joint oral intervention by Nada Awad of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council, during a discussion on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests, held on September 29, 2021.

On the occasion of awarding human rights defender Abdulrahman Tarek, the Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Award, 10 organisations urged the Egyptian authorities to immediately release him and end all violations against him.