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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.

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.

In response to the Algerian government’s crackdown on opposition and independent forces in the country, MENA Rights Group, in cooperation with 81 Algerian, regional and international human rights organisations, sent a letter to the member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for urgent action on Algeria at the upcoming 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The signatory organisations urged member states to adopt a demand to promptly open independent, impartial and effective investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment perpetrated by the Algerian authorities against citizens peacefully expressing their opinions or demonstrating. The

June 8, 2021 Dear President Biden, We, the undersigned non-governmental organizations focused variously on human rights, peacebuilding, and the protection of civilians, write in opposition to the United States government’s plans to sell $735 million in advanced weapons systems and munitions to Israel. The planned arms sales to Israel would send a signal of support […]

On June 1, 2021, 63 NGOs called on the Egyptian government to urgently address the serious human rights concerns raised by several UN bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council and several Special Procedure mandate holders. The Egyptian authorities have been critised for their crackdown on independent organisations and peaceful dissent through repressive measures such as arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and torture for years and have yet to take the necessary steps to bring their actions in line with their international human rights obligations.

The undersigned human rights and digital rights organizations urge Google to immediately halt its plan to establish a new Google Cloud region in Saudi Arabia until the company can publicly demonstrate how it will mitigate adverse human rights impacts. Saudi Arabia’s recent track record of repression of all public dissent, alleged espionage and infiltration of […]

On May 19, 2021, a coalition of 11 organisations jointly called on Saudi Arabia to return the remains of those executed by the Saudi authorities. In their joint-statement, the undersigned organisations additionally called for those responsible for the April 2019 mass execution of 37 people to be held accountable.