News

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) and MENA Rights Group urgently call for the opening of an independent, impartial and transparent investigation into the deaths of Abdelhakim Derfidi, Abdessamade Oubalat and Mohamed Rahali, killed on October 1, 2025 in Leqliâa when the Royal Gendarmerie fired live ammunition at GenZ212 movement protesters.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights and MENA Rights Group have submitted the case of Yassine Chabli, who died in police custody in 2022, to the UN Committee Against Torture, citing evidence of torture and major flaws in the official investigation. The organisations denounce the authorities’ failure to classify the violence as torture and warn that the handling of the case undermines confidence in Morocco’s justice system.

MENA Rights Group (MRG) and Safeguard Defenders welcome the decision of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which ruled that the detention of Uyghur activist Yidiresi Aishan in Morocco, where he was facing extradition to China, was arbitrary under international law.

H.M. King Mohammed VI  Rabat, Morocco  July 29, 2025  Your Majesty,  We are writing to request that the government of Morocco immediately release human rights defender Nasser Zefzafi on humanitarian grounds so he can care for his elderly father, who was recently diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Releasing Nasser on or before July 30 would […]

MENA Rights Group and Safeguard Defenders welcome the recent release of Uyghur activist Yidiresi Aishan, who faced extradition from Morocco to China following his arrest in 2021.

During an event at the UN Headquarters in New York, civil society organisations and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism raised their concerns regarding the troubling pattern of transnational repression in the MENA region.

Washington, DC and Geneva, Switzerland – The Committee for Justice, Freedom House and MENA Rights Group praised the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s (WGAD) recently announced Opinion qualifying the detention of Moroccan activist Nasser Zefzafi as arbitrary, and calling on the Moroccan government to take action to release Zefzafi without delay.  Zefzafi is a Moroccan […]

Committee for Justice, Freedom House, and MENA Rights Group have jointly petitioned the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of Nasser Zefzafi, an imprisoned political activist in Morocco. Zefzafi is serving an unjust 20-year prison sentence for his peaceful activism on behalf of his indigenous Amazigh community in the marginalized Rif region.

The UN Human Rights Council prepares to elect its 2024 President from Africa—Morocco & South Africa in the running. In a joint letter, MENA Rights group joins a coalition of NGOs in urging all members of the Council to elect the Council President based on Council membership criteria.

Marking the 2 year anniversary of his arrest, MENA Rights Group and Safeguard Defenders call on Moroccan authorities to cancel extradition proceedings against Uyghur activist Idris Hasan and to ensure his passage to a safe country.

On November 8, 2022, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) held its 4th cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Morocco. The UPR is a peer review mechanism by which UN Member States provide recommendations to improve the human rights record of the countries under review. Ahead of the review, in March 2022, MENA Rights Group submitted a shadow report outlining a set of recommendations.

MENA Rights Group joined 41 civil society organisations in signing an open letter to the Moroccan authorities urging them to release, among other journalists and human rights defenders, Taoufik Bouachrine. The journalist is currently detained for simply exercising his right to freedom of expression.