Living Archive
Defenders.
An open record of human rights defenders across the Middle East and North Africa. Every entry is a case file — dated, sourced, and kept current.
173
Records on
the open archive
87
Currently held
detained · sentenced · on trial
57
In exile or under
transnational repression
11
In memoriam
killed for their work
The Record
Filtered cases
Ezzat Ghoneim
Ezzat Ghoneim, a lawyer who led one of Egypt's most active human rights groups documenting disappearances, was himself disappeared in 2018, then…
Maâti Monjib
Maâti Monjib leads associations defending press freedom and investigative journalism in Morocco. Convicted in absentia in 2021 of threatening state security, he…
Hunger strikeIbrahim Mrikli
Ibrahim Mrikli was arrested in El Ayoun on 15 May 2020 and charged with insulting public servants, stone throwing, and violating quarantine…
Jamal Ahrouch
Jamal Ahrouch is a Sahrawi trade unionist arrested after participating in a peaceful demonstration in Gulemim. He has been held in Bouizakarne…
Faleh Hammoudi
Head of the Tlemcen office of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, convicted to three years in prison for…
Abdelrahman Tarek
Abdelrahman Tarek was arrested in September 2019 during a judicial observation session and has been held in arbitrary detention ever since, despite…
Hunger strikeMohamed El-Baqer
Lawyer and director of the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms, which provides legal aid to political detainees in Egypt. Detained for…
Patrick George Zaki
A researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, he was arrested in 2020 and convicted in 2023 for an article on…
Zaki Hannache
Zaki Hannache documented arrests of protesters after Algeria's 2019 Hirak uprising. He was arrested in 2022, charged with terrorism-related offences, and held…
Medical urgencyMeriem Bribri
Meriem Bribri was sentenced to four months in prison and fined for sharing a video of police violence on Facebook. A telecommunications…
Nizar Saghieh
A founding member of the Legal Agenda, Nizar Saghieh faces disbarment proceedings for criticising amendments that require Bar approval before lawyers speak…
Delsoz Khalaf
Delsoz Khalaf leads a human rights organisation in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She faces two criminal complaints filed by a Workers'…
