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
Mhamed Hali
Mhamed Hali holds a doctorate in international humanitarian law and leads the Association for the Protection of Saharan Prisoners. Morocco has blocked…
Rida Benotmane
Rida Benotmane is a journalist, author, and member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights. He served eighteen months in Laarjat 1…
El Hussein Amaadour
El Hussein Amaadour is a Sahrawi student organizer and advocate for self-determination, imprisoned for leading university protests. He is held in Bouizakarne…
Medical urgencyImtithal Abdelfadeel
Imtithal Abdelfadeel is a journalist and member of the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate who reports on displaced communities and women's rights. She was…
Mohamed Al-Roken
Mohamed Al-Roken is a human rights lawyer who defended activists and critics of the UAE government. Arrested in 2012, he completed a…
Kaddour Chouicha
University lecturer and vice-president of Algeria's League for the Defence of Human Rights, charged with terrorism offences for his work with the…
Jamila Loukil
Journalist and member of the Algerian League for Human Rights, covering Hirak demonstrations in Oran. Charged with terrorism-related offences in 2021 and…
Said Boudour
Journalist and human rights monitor with the Algerian League for Human Rights, active in Hirak protest movement defence and migrant rights. Charged…
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 strikeIsmail Lghazaoui
Agricultural engineer and pro-Palestine advocate imprisoned for two months for social-media posts supporting boycotts of companies linked to Israel. Released February 2025…
Mohamed Mayara
Mohamed Mayara is a Sahrawi journalist who co-founded two key documentation groups in Western Sahara. He was expelled from Cape Bojador by…
Abubakr Mansour Abdela
Abubakr Mansour Abdela is a lawyer who stayed in his hometown when the war came to Sudan in 2023, distributing medicine and…
