Strengthening the UN human rights system

Acting as a bridge between victims of severe human rights violations and the UN human rights mechanisms, Alkarama makes every effort to ensure that these mechanisms are strengthened and able to protect and promote human rights in the region.

Supporting the UN Special Procedures

Throughout the year, Alkarama met with several Special Procedures mandate holders with whom it works closely.

● February 28 – March 1: Regional consultation with the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Alkarama’s legal team based in Beirut participated in a two-day regional consultation with the Special Rapporteur David Kaye and other civil society organisations to discuss freedom of expression and digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region.

● June 7: Consultation between civil society and the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association As Annalisa Ciampi took up her functions on May 1 as the new mandate holder, a meeting was organised to meet with key civil society partners of the mandate in order to allow her to share her preliminary ideas for the implementation of the mandate. The meeting provided a platform for NGOs and human rights defenders to discuss the key issues relating to the mandate, as well as gaps and challenges.

● June 8: Meeting with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions During the 34th session of the Human Rights Council in June, the staff of Alkarama met with Agnes Callamard – who took up her position as mandate holder in 2016 – to raise concerns over the use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions, particularly in countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen.

● June 29: Annual meeting of the Special Procedures As it does every year, Alkarama participated in the annual meeting of the Special Procedures. Alkarama welcomed the launch of the new searchable database platform for communications, which made the information more easily accessible to the public and also increased visibility. Alkarama raised the issue of the lack of follow-up on communications and the low pick-up rate of communications by Special Procedures mandate holders due to a lack of capacity

● August 23: Meeting of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention with NGOs Among the topics raised with the experts of the WGAD were the handling of communications, country visits and the follow-up procedure. Regarding the latter, the WGAD explained that it had introduced a new procedure by which a state was asked to provide information on the implementation of the Opinion within six months.

● December 15: Meeting with the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures Alkarama’s staff participated in a meeting between the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures – a body of six independent experts which coordinates and facilitates the work of Special Procedures as a whole – and civil society. The objective was to discuss issues related to the role of the Committee – which is to enhance coordination among mandate holders and to act as a bridge between them and the OHCHR, as well as the broader UN human rights framework and civil society – and to discuss the issue of cooperation between states and special procedures.

● December 18: Expert consultation on a joint communications strategy Alkarama’s legal team participated in a consultation organised by three mandate holders: the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and the Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The aim of the consultation was to explore further cooperation between the three mandates in addressing issues related to public freedoms, and to maximise the usefulness of the communications procedure for both victims and civil society.


Supporting the UN Treaty Bodies…

In 2017, Alkarama continued to support the work of the Treaty Bodies, in particular through the submission of nine reports on eight countries to the HR Committee, the CAT, and the CED. Alkarama participated in the reviews of Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon, and submitted four follow-up reports on Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia to assess the implementation of the Treaty Bodies’ previous recommendations. Lastly, Alkarama submitted a contribution to the List of Issues of the Human Rights Committee ahead of Algeria’s review in 2018.

● March-April: Contribution to the review of Lebanon and Bahrain by the Committee against Torture Ahead of both Bahrain and Lebanon’s reviews, Alkarama submitted a shadow report to the Committee highlighting its main concerns and recommendations, and met with the UN independent experts to brief them on key concerns. After the issuance of the Committee’s Concluding Observations, Alkarama ensured their wide diffusion within local civil society.

● August 21-22: Consultation on Treaty Body Reform facilitated by Columbia University Alkarama was invited to participate in a workshop facilitated by Columbia University on the reform of Treaty Bodies, which was held in Amman, Jordan. During the event, attended by UN experts and civil society from the Arab region, strategies for improving the Treaty Bodies’ working methods were discussed, as well the possible synergies with other UN human rights protection mechanisms and the necessity to encourage follow-ups. The role of civil society was also raised together with the pressing issue of reprisals.

● September-October: Contribution to the review of Jordan by the Human Rights Committee In preparation for Jordan’s review by the Human Rights Committee, Alkarama submitted a shadow report highlighting its main concerns and recommendations. Together with other civil society organisations, Alkarama’s staff also participated in a formal and informal meeting with the Committee’s members to brief them on our key concerns.


Strengthening civil society action in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review…

This year, Alkarama took part in several initiatives ahead of the third Universal Periodic Review of Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco in May 2017. Prior to the review, Alkarama had submitted shadow reports to UN Member States highlighting our key concerns and also briefed state delegations, as well as the European Union in Geneva, to ensure that recommendations would be made on our key concerns.

Fostering a culture of human rights in the Arab World

 

Strengthening civil society in the Arab world

Alkarama believes that it is essential to empower local civil society, since an experienced and competent civil society plays a crucial role in ensuring the promotion and protection of human rights in a country. Therefore, Alkarama participated in several workshops on the documentation of individual cases of human rights violations as well as on the UN mechanisms. For example, in January, Alkarama participated in a thematic workshop on “Mapping Enforced Disappearances and the Missing” that took place in Istanbul. Our Legal Director provided training to human rights defenders on the use of the UN protection mechanisms available to address the issue of enforced disappearances.

In addition, Alkarama provides support to human rights defenders from the region and encourages them to address human rights violations before the UN human rights mechanisms. Among others, Alkarama assisted several relatives of missing persons in Algeria who came to Geneva to meet with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in May as well as to attend their country’s Universal Periodic Review.

Lastly, in 2017, Alkarama continued to denounce reprisals against numerous human rights defenders with whom we work, who were targeted for their work and their cooperation with the UN protection mechanisms. As it does every year, in June 2017, Alkarama submitted a report to the UN Secretary General (UNSG) documenting such instances of reprisals.

On September 20, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights presented the UNSG annual report on the subject of reprisals against persons who cooperated with the UN to the Human Rights Council. The report named 29 countries where individuals have been subjected to reprisals – including asset freezes, travel bans, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture – for having cooperated with the UN. Alkarama is very concerned that the MENA region accounts for a third of the countries named since Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates were included.

Building a constructive dialogue with States

Through its work, Alkarama tries to engage in a constructive dialogue with states in the Arab region to promote better respect for human rights and the rule of law in the region. However, this has proven difficult considering the shrinking civil society space in the region and the fact that states have increasingly subjected anyone who reports human rights abuses to the UN human rights mechanisms to reprisals. However, we have undertaken several initiatives to this end, especially in Lebanon, where Alkarama established an office in 2007.

● March 2: Consultation with the OHCHR Regional Office on Lebanon’s National Human Rights Institution Our Lebanon country representative attended a consultation with civil society organisations organised by the Beirut office of the OHCHR to discuss the establishment of a national human rights institution, including a national preventive mechanism for torture.

● March 9: Meeting with the Legal Advisor to the Lebanese Ministry of State for Human Rights The meeting’s objective was to discuss the structure of the newly established Ministry of State for Human Rights. Alkarama suggested that it be vested with the preparation of state reports to the UN mechanisms as well as ensuring follow-ups.

● April 20: Roundtable following the recommendations issued by the Committee against Torture on Lebanon Alkarama’s country representative attended a roundtable organised by Restart Center for rehabilitation of victims of violence and torture with other civil society organisations and representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior as well as Sébastien Touzé, member of UN Committee against Torture. The meeting aimed at presenting the NGOs’ shadow reports as well as civil society’s strategy following the issuance of the Committee’s recommendations.

● April 27: OHCHR roundtable on Lebanon’s National Human Rights Institute Alkarama’s staff attended a roundtable organised by the OHCHR in Lebanon on the National Human Rights Institute, which is yet to become operational, and its relationship with NGOs. Representatives of the Moroccan and Irish National Human Rights Institutions provided insights on their respective experience.

● November 27: Parliamentary roundtable discussion on Lebanon’s new Anti-Torture Law Lebanon country representative attended a roundtable discussion organised by the Rapporteur of the parliament’s Human Rights Committee, Mr Ghassan Moukheiber, with civil society organisations to analyse the new anti-torture legislation enacted in October.

Increase public awareness on human rights issues in the Arab World

Using the media to foster a better understanding of human rights in the region

Media is an essential tool for raising awareness of major human rights issues and increasing visibility for victims of violations in the Arab world. This year, Alkarama has been an important source of independent and expert information for several Arab and international media outlets.¨

Our staff participated in press conferences and live debates broadcast on TV stations to discuss the human rights situation in Arab countries and/or cases of victims of human rights violations. Moreover, many articles cited the work of our organisation or shared testimonies of victims whose cases were handled by Alkarama. Among these media outlets were Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, Open Democracy, L’Orient Le Jour, the Daily Star, Al Mayadeen and Aliwaa.

Furthermore, Alkarama continued to strengthen its presence on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to shed light on the plight of the victims of violations and to provide reliable information on the general human rights situation in Arab countries. This has allowed us to reach a broader audience and increase the dissemination of information on human rights in the region, particularly in countries where access to our website is blocked, namely Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Using social media for advocacy and ensure better visibility of our work

Alkarama continued to strengthen its presence on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to shed light on the plight of the victims we defend and to provide reliable information on the general human rights situation in Arab countries. This has allowed us to reach a broader audience and increase the dissemination of information on human rights in the region, particularly in countries where access to our website is blocked.


 

#SpeakUp4Egypt: Alkarama’s 2017 international advocacy campaign

 

In November 24, 2017, Alkarama launched its second annual international advocacy campaign, this year dedicated to raising awareness of Egypt’s crackdown on freedom of expression. The campaign drew attention to the breadth and severity of this crackdown while calling upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN experts – as well as the larger global community – to take a stand.


NGOs estimate that more than 60,000 individuals have been arrested and detained in Egypt since 2013, a majority of whom are deprived of their liberty after merely exercising their right to freedom of expression. The country has become the third worst jailer of journalists worldwide, and since May 2017, more than 400 websites – including those belonging to news outlets and human rights organisations – have been blocked.


In recent years, the authorities have established an extremely restrictive legal framework – including the Anti-Protest Law, the NGO Law, the Anti-Terrorism Law, and the Press Law – enabling them to severely violate the fundamental rights of their citizens while acting in a climate of complete impunity. Abductions, secret detention, torture, rape, arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, and summary executions are used against students, journalists, lawyers, professors, human rights defenders, activists, unionists and politicians, in order to instil fear and silence any form of dissent.


#SpeakUp4Egypt launched on November 24 with an open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HC), urging him to publicly condemn this crackdown and to call upon the Egyptian authorities to respect their international human rights obligations. The letter, signed by Alkarama along with 10 other NGOs – Adalah Center for Rights & Freedoms, ARTICLE 19, Committee for Justice, Egyptian Coordination of Rights and Freedoms, El Nadim Center against Torture and Violence, EuroMed Rights, Front Line Defenders, Index on Censorship, PEN International, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) – urged the HC to “call upon the authorities to put an end to these violations and establish the necessary prevention and accountability mechanisms to avoid their repetition.”


Following the publication of the open letter, the campaign continued on social media channels, raising awareness of the scale of the crackdown and telling the stories of those at its receiving end. By providing facts, figures and legal analyses as well as by highlighting individual cases of violations against individuals from all backgrounds and walks of life, the campaign aimed to show that the crackdown is systematic, widespread and pervasive. For example, the campaign used social media channels to draw attention to a number of pieces of legislation used by the Egyptian authorities since 2013 in an effort to consolidate its crackdown on freedom of expression, and also highlighted the UN Committee against Torture’s four-year-long confidential inquiry, which was triggered by Alkarama, after which members of the committee concluded that torture in Egypt is “habitual, widespread and deliberate”.

 

 

Since July 2013, Alkarama has filed complaints to the UN on behalf of more than 2,600 victims of extrajudicial execution, enforced disappearance, torture, and arbitrary detention in Egypt, and this is only a fraction of the thousands of individuals who have fallen victim to the authorities’ crackdown on freedom of expression. The #SpeakUp4Egypt campaign told the stories of three of these individuals: Omar Mohamed Ali, a 25-year-old student and filmmaker who was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2016 despite no evidence having ever been found against him, Reem Kotb Gobara, a filmmaker charged with “promoting a misleading image of Egypt”, who is being held in inhuman conditions and is yet to appear before a court, and Sherine Bekhit, a freelance journalist and reporter who remains arbitrarily detained to date on charges of “spreading false news”, among other charges. #SpeakUp4Egypt was designed as a platform for collective engagement, and we encouraged the use of the hashtag #SpeakUp4 to support campaigns for individual victims of this crackdown.


The campaign was successful in achieving these aims, producing a high level of engagement both within Egypt and internationally, with numerous individuals and organisations sharing information and raising awareness of Egypt’s widespread and pervasive crackdown on freedom of expression. While the campaign was effective in shining a light on this practice, there is a need for continued international pressure in order to put an end to these human rights violations. It is vital that individuals urge their governments to take the Egyptian authorities’ human rights record into consideration in their relationships with Egypt. Moreover, it is essential that the global community continues to speak up for the thousands of individuals who are being silenced by this crackdown. In the upcoming year, Alkarama will continue to monitor the human rights situation in Egypt, and will provide pro bono legal assistance to victims of this crackdown regardless of their background or political affiliation.

 

Alkarama's 2017 Reports

 

UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE

COMMITTEE ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES

NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS