On 19 December 19 2014, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health on the case of Mohammed Al Ferchichi, a 36-year-old worker, arrested and tortured by the Tunisian authorities.

During its 112th session in Geneva from 7 to 31 October 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued its decision in the case of Saleh Salem Hmeed and several members of his family, who were arrested, detained and tortured by the security services of Gaddafi's former regime.

Background

On 3 November 1986, after notifying the police of the discovery of one of his neighbours' body in a well on his agricultural land, Hmeed was arrested and severely tortured by the police to make him confess that he was the author of his neighbour's murder.

On 19 December 2014 Alkarama – together with the Association of Human Rights Defenders in Iraq (AHRDI), the General Federation of Iraqi Women (GFIW), the Human Rights Division at the Association of Muslims Scholars in Iraq, the Iraqi Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), and the Organisation for Justice & Democracy in Iraq (OJDI) – sent a joint report to the Sub Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Co

On 1 December, Alkarama sent a communication to the Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) regarding the case of Zied Younes, a 25-year-old engineer arrested on 10 September 2014, by the antiterrorism squad. The victim was tortured by security services and prison guards and held in worrying conditions before being judged on the basis of evidence obtained under torture.

From 27 November to 5 December 2014, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, visited Tunisia with the aim to assess the challenges the country still faced in order to ensure the independence of its judicial system.

On 18 December 2014, less than a week after Layla and Tarek Issawi's return from Geneva where they had gone to receive the 2014 Alkarama Award for Human Rights Defenders on behalf of their daughter, Shireen, still detained by Israel, their youngest son, Shadi, a law student, was re-arrested by the Israeli forces at a checkpoint. His arrest is part of a broad campaign of reprisals against the Issawi family.

Alkarama welcomes the release, on 18 December 2014, of Jadia Abdallah Nawfal and Omar Al Shaar two Syrian human rights defenders arrested on their return from Beirut where they were attending human rights conferences and workshops. Detained in Adra Prison, they were freed yesterday following a decision issued by the investigating judge.

On 17 December 2014, Alkarama provided the Human Rights Committee (HRC) with a list of 22 issues to be raised by the United Nations experts with the Iraqi authorities during their consideration of Iraq's fifth periodic report.

Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), regarding the case of Mouhayadine Yacin Mohamed and Said Charmake Darar, two young Djiboutian activists arbitrarily arrested by the police on 8 December 2014.

On 2 December 2014, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), regarding the disappearance, between August 2012 and May 2013, of three Syrian citizens, all living and working in the neighbo