News

MENA Rights Group joins 30 partner organisations in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Egyptian activist, Ahmed Douma, ahead of the judgment in his appeal.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UN WGAD), a panel of independent legal experts that rules on individual cases of unlawful detention worldwide, has issued a landmark decision finding that Israel’s detention of Palestinian paediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is arbitrary, and has called for his immediate release. The opinion, adopted following a request submitted by MENA Rights Group, marks the first time the body has ruled on the detention of a Palestinian from Gaza held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law.

Following its fourth Universal Periodic Review, Lebanon chose to accept 218 out of the 286 recommendations it had received. While the authorities accepted the majority of recommendations, they notably rejected calls to abolish the statute of limitations on torture and failed to receive any recommendation specifically addressing their role in transnational repression.

Following its fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review, Mauritania informed the Human Rights Council of its decision to accept 229 out of the 271 recommendations it had received. While Mauritania accepted the majority of recommendations, it rejected key ones notably on the 1993 amnesty law and on women’s rights.

On the sidelines of the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, MENA Rights Group co-organised a side event bringing together human rights defenders and civil society representatives to discuss the death penalty in Saudi Arabia and highlight how its use amounts to torture and arbitrary execution, eroding international standards.

On June 18, 2026, MENA Rights Group, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, and ALQST for Human Rights delivered a joint oral statement at the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council, during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on summary, extrajudicial and arbitrary executions, highlighting the grave human rights violations and severe suffering that result from the continued and arbitrary use of the death penalty in the Gulf region, Iran, and Iraq.

MENA Rights Group joins 11 other NGOs in condemning Meta's decision to restrict human rights accounts in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates at the request of the two governments, and calling on Meta to act in line with its human rights responsibilities.

MENA Rights Group joins 7 other NGOs in an urgent call on Saudi Arabia to immediately release medical doctor and Wikipedia administrator, Osama Khalid, arrested in 2020 for peaceful online expression and now sentenced to 14 years in prison.

MENA Rights Group joins 12 other NGOs, in a joint urgent appeal to world leaders to call on Bahrain to end the practice of citizenship stripping and abide by its international human rights obligations.

On World Press Freedom Day 2026, the government of Bahrain continues to criminalise dissent through laws that violate Bahrain’s international human rights obligations, through heavy restrictions on media ownership and the arbitrary arrest of those who peacefully express their views online or in peaceful gatherings. This suppression has strangled Bahrain’s media and online expression and […]

MENA Rights Group joins 37 other NGOs in a joint statement expressing concern over the significant escalation in the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has surpassed 2,000 executions, marking an acceleration since the accession of King Salman and the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. We call for an immediate moratorium on executions, as well as a review of all death penalty cases in line with international obligations.

At its 30th session, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances reviewed Iraq’s implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and issued its observations highlighting serious shortcomings.