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
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…
Nashwa Al-Deeb
Opposition candidate who withdrew from Egypt's November 2025 parliamentary elections citing electoral fraud, vote-buying, and systematic irregularities in the Munira and Giza…
Ibrahim Mrikli
Ibrahim Mrikli was arrested in El Ayoun on 15 May 2020 and charged with insulting public servants, stone throwing, and violating quarantine…
Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy
Egyptian human rights lawyer detained at Cairo airport in September 2017 while travelling to brief the UN on enforced disappearances. Held in…
Medical urgencyJamal Ahrouch
Jamal Ahrouch is a Sahrawi trade unionist arrested after participating in a peaceful demonstration in Gulemim. He has been held in Bouizakarne…
Murtadha Al-Janoubi
Environmental activist documenting the degradation of Maysan's marshes, arrested after participating in protests demanding fair water allocations for communities facing drought and…
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…
Al-Fadil Ismail
Al-Fadil Ismail volunteers with the Emergency Response Room in Zalingei, Darfur, and coordinates aid in his community. He was arrested from his…
Ahmed Douma
Egyptian writer and central figure of the January 25 revolution. Pardoned by President al-Sisi in August 2023 after nearly ten years in…
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…
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…
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…
