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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-2026-047
Released
Loujain al-Hathloul
Saudi women's rights defender held in detention from May 2018 to February 2021 and now under an indefinite travel ban.
Arrested 2018
HM-XX-2026-044
In forced exile
Salah Hamouri
Franco-Palestinian human rights lawyer detained without charge in Al-Moskobiya since March 2022 under administrative detention, facing revocation of his Jerusalem residency and…
Open case file
HM-LB-2026-002
Released
Ghassan Abdallah
Director of the Palestinian Human Rights Organisation in Lebanon, Ghassan Abdallah has faced repeated airport searches, interrogations, and arbitrary detention in retaliation…
Open case file
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-XX-2026-046
On trial
Shatha Odeh Abu Fannouneh
Director of a Palestinian health organization, arrested at her home in Ramallah in July 2021 and held in Israeli prisons under charges…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-047
In exile
Alaa Abdel Fattah
Alaa Abdel Fattah, a blogger and digital rights defender, was arrested in 2019 while complying with probation conditions. He has been held…
Hunger strike
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-019
Sentenced
Waad Bahjat
Women's rights defender, blogger, and member of the Umbda Resistance Committee who was arrested, ill-treated, and convicted on charges of public annoyance…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-050
Released
Sanaa Seif
Sanaa Seif was abducted in June 2020 outside the prosecutor's office where she had gone to file a complaint after being assaulted.…
Open case file
HM-XX-2026-042
Detained
Husain Mouneif al-Jabri
Arrested in 2012 and sentenced to ten years in the UAE84 trial, Husain Mouneif al-Jabri completed his term in 2022 but was…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-039
Under TNR
Mohamed Mahmoud Ebrahim Shahin
An imam and community mediator in Turin for two decades, Mohamed Shahin faces deportation to Egypt after Italy revoked his residence permit…
Open case file
HM-SA-2026-005
Under TNR
Ghanem Al-Masarir
Ghanem Al-Masarir, a Saudi dissident YouTuber living in London, was targeted with Pegasus spyware and physically assaulted by Saudi agents. In 2026…
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-018
Under restriction
Hafiz Haron
Hafiz Haron reports on police violence in Sudan. When he tried to report a burglary, officers beat him, then charged him with…
Medical urgency
Open case file