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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
HM-XX-2026-019
Sentenced
Mohamed Al-Roken
Mohamed Al-Roken is a human rights lawyer who defended activists and critics of the UAE government. Arrested in 2012, he completed a…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-004
Released
Montaser Abdullah
Montaser Abdullah is a Sudanese lawyer who represented survivors of gender-based violence and defended members of the Tagadom political coalition. He was…
Open case file
HM-BH-2021-001
Imprisoned
Ahmed Jaafar
Ahmed Jaafar is a Bahraini labour activist serving life imprisonment after Serbia forcibly extradited him in January 2022 despite a binding European…
Day 1,676 · since 2021-11-03
HM-EG-2020-002
Disappeared
Ahmed Amasha
Ahmed Amasha is a veterinarian, trade unionist, and co-founder of the League for Families of the Disappeared. He has been arrested twice,…
Day 2,196 · since 2020-06-01
HM-EG-2024-001
Detained
Abdulrahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi
A dual Egyptian-Turkish poet arrested at the Lebanon-Syria border, forcibly extradited to the UAE, and held incommunicado since January 2025 after publishing…
Day 525 · since 2024-12-28
HM-BH-2011-001
Imprisoned
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 strike
Day 5,635 · since 2011-01-01
HM-BH-2026-001
Detained
Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali
Ahmed Jaafar Mohamed Ali was extradited from Serbia to Bahrain in 2021 despite a binding European Court order. Convicted in absentia after…
Open case file
HM-JO-2025-001
Detained
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 urgency
Day 438 · since 2025-03-25
HM-DZ-2024-001
Sentenced
Hadjer Zitouni
Former communications director at the Algerian Red Crescent who reported mismanagement of humanitarian aid in 2023. Detained and prosecuted after the organization's…
Day 767 · since 2024-04-30
HM-MA-2023-001
Detained
Al-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 strike
Day 1,171 · since 2023-03-23
HM-DZ-2025-001
Sentenced
Ali Mammeri
Ali Mammeri is a public sector employee and trade union president who founded the Independent National Union of Employees in the Culture…
Day 444 · since 2025-03-19
HM-EG-2026-002
On trial
Aya 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…
Open case file