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
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 strikeShatha 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…
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…
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…
Mansour Mohamed Atti Al-Maghrabi
Mansour Mohamed Atti Al-Maghrabi produces "Shatt al-Hurriya," a satirical TV series about everyday life in Libya. Armed men abducted him in June…
Yahya Mohamed El Hafed Aaza
Known as 'the father' among Sahrawi political prisoners for his support work, Yahya Mohamed El Hafed Aaza has endured enforced disappearance, solitary…
Hunger strikeMahfouda Bamba Lefkire
A mother and advocate in El Ayoun, Western Sahara, organising workshops for families of political prisoners. After hosting a meeting to support…
Raif Badawi
Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger and co-founder of Free Saudi Liberals, served ten years in prison for posts about free speech and…
Hunger strikeAbdelrahman Tarek
Abdelrahman Tarek was arrested in September 2019 during a judicial observation session and has been held in arbitrary detention ever since, despite…
Hunger strikeMohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim runs Oxygen Egypt, a blog and YouTube channel covering rights and politics. Arrested in September 2019 after reporting to police,…
Ibrahim Ezz El-Din
An engineer who documented forced evictions, Ibrahim Ezz El-Din was arrested in June 2019, disappeared for 167 days, then held in pre-trial…
Ahmed Gamal Ziada
Egyptian journalist and editor-in-chief of Zawia3, now in Belgium. In August 2023, Egyptian security forces arrested his father and charged him with…
Medical urgency