January 2026 - HuMENA

How Access Pathways Reshape the Public Sphere in the Diaspora… Unwritten Rules that Redistribute Legitimacy Within Activism in Exile

January 30, 2026 0Comments 0Reactions

The vitality of the public sphere is not measured only by the number of initiatives or the density of issues, but by people’s ability to enter spaces of public action and remain in them. Many have desire, knowledge, and commitment, yet falter at the first threshold. In a substantial sense, the problem is not a…

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Egypt | January 25 Revolution, 15 Years On: A Human Rights Reading of Freedoms and Participation

January 25, 2026 0Comments 0Reactions

On the fifteenth anniversary of the January 25, 2011 revolution, this moment is recalled as a point at which broad segments of Egyptian society—women and men alike—demanded a state governed by the rule of law rather than by a logic of exception; a state that guarantees tangible conditions for living with dignity; and a public…

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Tunisia | Criminalizing Journalism: Zghidi and Bessis Sentenced

January 24, 2026 0Comments 0Reactions

During the hearing on 22 January 2026, the court sentenced journalists Mourad Zghidi and Borhane Bessis to three years and six months’ imprisonment on charges of money laundering and tax-related offences. The ruling also imposed fines, ordered the confiscation of their assets, and provided for the seizure of their shareholdings and associated rights in companies…

HuMENA statement marking January 14 on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Tunisia

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Tunisia | January 14 Revolution: No Legitimacy for Repression in the Name of Public Order.

January 14, 2026 0Comments 0Reactions

Fifteen years have passed since the outbreak of the Tunisian revolution against injustice and tyranny, when the Tunisian people decided to break with a deeply entrenched authoritarian system that had been in place since 1989. The cost of that system’s persistence was severe for civil society and intermediary bodies, as human rights defenders and political…

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Tunisia | A life-threatening health emergency for lawyer and former administrative judge Ahmed Souab in detention, and the State’s duty to ensure medical care and end the criminalisation of the right to defence and freedom of expression

January 8, 2026 0Comments 0Reactions

HuMENA expresses deep concern regarding the serious health developments affecting lawyer and former administrative judge Ahmed Souab inside Mornaguia Prison on 5 January 2026. On that day, Souab suffered acute nosebleeding in the morning, followed by more severe bleeding in the afternoon that led to loss of consciousness. On 6 January 2026, Saeb Souab (Ahmed…

هيومينا ترحب بالإفراج عن شريفة الرياحي وزملائها وتطالب بوقف تجريم العمل المدني في تونس

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Tunisia | HuMENA welcomes the release of Sharifa Riahi and her colleagues, but release is not enough. It is time to end the criminalisation of civil society work linked to protecting migrants and refugees.

January 6, 2026 0Comments 0Reactions

HuMENA welcomes the decision to release, with a two-year prison sentence suspended (deferred enforcement), Sharifa Riahi, Mohamed Jaouou, Ayadh Boussalmi, Imen Wardani, and Mohamed Iqbal Khaled, following the second hearing held on 5 January 2026 before the Bab Bnet Court in Tunis. The hearing began at 9:00 a.m. and continued late into the night, according…