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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-2026-036
Released
Malcolm Bidali
A Kenyan security guard and blogger detained in Qatar for documenting migrant worker rights abuses. Held in solitary confinement for nearly a…
Open case file
HM-XX-2026-031
Detained
Jamal Ahrouch
Jamal Ahrouch is a Sahrawi trade unionist arrested after participating in a peaceful demonstration in Gulemim. He has been held in Bouizakarne…
Open case file
HM-EG-2026-017
Released
Haytham Mohamadeen
Haytham Mohamadeen is a labour lawyer who spent over four years in preventive detention on terrorism-related charges. He was arrested in 2018,…
Open case file
HM-IQ-2026-002
Under restriction
Delsoz Khalaf
Delsoz Khalaf leads a human rights organisation in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She faces two criminal complaints filed by a Workers'…
Open case file
HM-DZ-2026-004
Released
Mohad Gasmi
Mohad Gasmi organised unemployed youth in southern Algeria, protested fracking, and joined the Hirak reform movement. He spent more than four years…
Hunger strike
Open case file
HM-SD-2026-005
Detained
Abdelwahab Ahmed Mohamed Hashem “Bob”
Abdelwahab Ahmed Mohamed Hashem—known to friends and colleagues as Bob—leads the Workers' Coordination Committee in North Kordofan, advocating for public employees amid…
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-DZ-2021-001
Detained
Mustafa Guira
A father of four, Mustafa has spent decades supporting families of the disappeared and prisoners of conscience across Algeria. Arrested in 2021,…
Day 1,870 · since 2021-04-23
HM-MA-2025-002
Sentenced
Nezha Majdi
Nezha Majdi is a professor in Morocco who protested alongside contract teachers in April 2021. She reported sexual assault and violent treatment…
Day 170 · since 2025-12-18