On July 31, 2025, +10 human rights organizations wrote to the Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Motaz Zahran urging him to raise our concerns about the detention of poet and PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award honoree Galal El-Behairy with relevant authorities in Cairo. Your Excellency, We, the undersigned human rights organizations, are deeply alarmed by…
Political sectarianism is very much entrenched in Lebanese society, Lebanese politics, and more significantly, Lebanese people’s sense of identity. It goes without saying that decades of colonial-influenced sectarianism have taken a toll on our lives, and the end of the hegemony of this system is nowhere in sight yet. While changes are happening, slowly but…
The undersigned human rights organizations call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately end all forms of harassment or intimidation against human rights defender Mohamed Abdel Salam, Executive Director of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), in retaliation for his legitimate human rights work. The organizations are also calling to ensure that AFTE…
For over half a century under the rule of Assad’s family -father and son- the Syrian regime did not market repress political freedoms; it systematically dismantled any prospect of an independent civil society. Cloaked in slogans about preserving national unity and maintaining security and stability, the regime moved to monopolize public and civic space, using…
The new Transitional Constitutional Declaration introduced by Syria’s de facto leadership offers a contradictory picture — one that claims commitment to international human rights while reinforcing centralized, religiously grounded authority. This tension raises urgent questions for civic space, minority protections, and the fragile hope of rebuilding civil society in post-Assad Syria.
A Brief History…
The undersigned organizations express their strong condemnation of the in absentia verdict issued on 1 July 2025 against activist Ramlah Dahmani, sentencing her to two years in prison with immediate enforcement. The ruling was issued under Article 24 of Decree No. 54 of 2022, which criminalizes the dissemination of “false information” via communication networks, a…
It has been nearly a year now since the National Security Agency in Egypt arrested Egyptian cartoonist named Ashraf Omar for his drawings criticizing the regime, then months later a journalist who interviewed Omar’s wife was arrested then the wife herself was also shortly detained, to be added to the 60,000 detainees in Egyptian prisons…
We, the undersigned organizations, are deeply alarmed by the news that Egyptian academic and U.S. lawful permanent resident Dr. Salah Soltan is enduring a potentially life-threatening medical crisis and is at increased risk of sudden death while detained in Egypt’s Badr 1 prison without sufficient medical care. We urge the Egyptian authorities to immediately and…
HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement condemns the in absentia verdict issued on 1 July 2025 against Ramlah Dahmani, sentencing her to two years in prison with immediate enforcement, over public statements concerning the detention conditions of her sister, Sonia Dahmani, a lawyer and political detainee imprisoned since May. This ruling is based on…
HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement strongly condemns the July 1, 2025, decision by the Algerian Appeal Court to uphold the politically motivated five-year prison sentence and a fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars (approximately $3,700 USD) against the renowned French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal. This verdict represents a serious breach of Algeria’s national and international…
After July 2013, when Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took control of Egypt’s political scene first as the leader of the military coup and then as president from June 2014 onward, his authoritarian rule has led to widespread human rights violations. These include significant restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly, and protest. Through repression…
We, the undersigned Egyptian, regional and international human rights organisations, are writing to provide input ahead of the negotiations on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the EU’s €4 billion Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) package to Egypt. Article 3 of the decision by the European Parliament and Council on granting MFA to Egypt states that: “The…
Brussels, 26 June 2025 Amid escalating, systematic crackdowns on civil society across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the continued arbitrary detention of human rights defenders under harsh conditions, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), the Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF), HuMENA for Human Rights…
26 June 2025 On the occasion of 26 June, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture- which symbolizes the global commitment to ending the practice of torture and other ill-treatment- we, the undersigned organizations, express our deep concern over the ongoing impunity for the crime of torture in Lebanon and the lack of…
We, the undersigned organizations, call on the Egyptian government to immediately end its campaign of transnational repression targeting exiled Egyptian journalists. We specifically urge the government to respond to the UN report detailing the harassment and surveillance of Egyptian investigative journalist Basma Mostafa, currently residing in Germany. We further urge German authorities to ensure her…
What does flight from repression look like if repression crosses borders? For the LGBTQ+ individuals and the women of North Africa, refuge is no protection. Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia have made transnational repression a means of state control, taking state violence across their borders by way of legal instruments, surveillance, and propaganda. Governments within them…
Notwithstanding the fact that the right to peaceful assembly is enshrined in the Lebanese constitution and international conventions to which Lebanon has acceded, recent years have witnessed repeated violations of this right, especially following the October 2019 uprising and the Beirut port explosion. These peaceful popular movements have frequently been met with excessive force, with…
HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement expresses its deep concern over the continued detention of lawyer and media figure Sonia Dahmani, who has been imprisoned for nearly a year following a shocking raid on the Bar Association and her public arrest. This violation marks a dangerous precedent that undermines the independence of the legal…
