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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-IQ-2026-008
On trial
Ali Akram al-Bayati
Ali Akram al-Bayati, a physician and former IHCHR Commissioner, faces defamation charges for documenting torture claims while serving Iraq's national human rights…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-007
In forced exile
Aida Seif El-Dawla
Egyptian psychiatrist and co-founder of the Nadeem Center, one of the Arab world's oldest torture rehabilitation centres. Under a travel ban since…
Open case file
HM-EG-2017-002
Detained
Ahmed Abdelsattar Amasha
Ahmed Abdelsattar Amasha is a lawyer, trade unionist, and environmental defender who documented enforced disappearances and torture in Egypt. He was disappeared…
Medical urgency
Day 3,375 · since 2017-03-10
HM-SA-2020-001
Released
Ziad Al-Sufyani
Ziad Al-Sufyani is a podiatrist who founded a university reading club and edited Wikipedia pages on women's rights. He was arrested during…
Arrested 2020