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
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, sentenced to life in prison after the 2011 uprising. Tortured, sexually assaulted, and held…
Hunger strikeAhmed Amasha
Ahmed Amasha is a veterinarian, trade unionist, and co-founder of the League for Families of the Disappeared. He has been arrested twice,…
Ahmed Al-Tohamy
Ahmed Al-Tohamy is a political science scholar whose research has been recognized internationally. He was arrested from his home in Cairo in…
Hamza Bani Issa
Chemistry teacher and political activist who lost his left eye after security forces beat him for refusing a public strip search in…
Medical urgencyAl-Hussein Al-Bashir Ibrahim
Al-Hussein Al-Bashir Ibrahim is a Sahrawi human rights monitor who has endured years of racialized abuse, medical neglect, and repeated punitive transfers…
Hunger strikeAya Kamal El-Din Hussein
Aya Kamal El-Din Hussein is a political activist and fashion designer first arrested at seventeen. She has been held in pre-trial detention…
Hassan Mushaima
Hassan Mushaima is a leading Bahraini opposition figure sentenced to life in prison after the 2011 mass protests. Now held in prolonged…
Medical urgencyAyachi Hammemi
Ayachi Hammemi is a lawyer who defended 57 judges dismissed by presidential decree in 2022. Arrested in December 2025 while representing defendants…
Hunger strikeSaadia Mosbah
Saadia Mosbah founded Mnemty, a Tunisian organization that helped secure the country's 2018 anti-racial-discrimination law. She has been held in pretrial detention…
Salah Soltan
Dr. Salah Soltan is a scholar, father of five, and grandfather of five American grandchildren. He has been detained in Egypt for…
Medical urgencyMohammed Habib Al-Muqdad
Mohammed Habib Al-Muqdad is a Bahraini Shia cleric and social activist who supported peaceful calls for reform in 2011. Arrested, disappeared, tortured,…
Medical urgencyMohamed Ibrahim (known as “Oxygen”)
Mohamed Ibrahim, known as "Oxygen," is a blogger who chronicled election irregularities and protest arrests in Egypt. He was disappeared for 18…
Hunger strike