Alkarama has referred the case of a Syrian citizen, Azad Abdo, to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, regarding Abdo's secret detention by the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) since his abduction in November 2013.

Alarmed and concerned about the ongoing repression of the opposition by the Djibouti authorities, Alkarama wrote an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to ask for the release of Mohamed Ibrahim Waiss, a journalist arrested and arbitrarily detained since 8 August, 2014.

Djiboutian police forces arrested Waiss as he was covering a demonstration by the opposition in Djibouti city. Beaten and his eye wounded during his arrest, he was taken to the Hodan police station where he was again subjected to police violence and did not receive medical attention.

We are pleased to inform you that the call for nominations for the 2014 Alkarama Award for Human Rights Defenders is now open.

The Alkarama Award is a prize presented every year to an individual or an organisation that has contributed significantly to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Arab world. The prize giving ceremony will be held in Geneva on Thursday 11 December, to mark Human Rights Day (10 December).

14 August 2014 marks the first anniversary of the killing of al-Rabaa Adawiya and el-Nahda squares in Cairo, which claimed the lives of over a thousand Egyptians who came to demonstrate peacefully against the military coup on 3 July 2013.

Despite the unanimous condemnation of human rights NGOs and much of the international community, shocked by the scale of the massacre, no investigation has been conducted by the Egyptian authorities to establish the responsibilities for this tragedy.

The Human Rights Committee, the treaty body monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), held its 111th session in July 2014. On this occasion, the Committee reviewed Sudan's fourth periodic report and issued its concluding observations.

Akarama sent an urgent appeal today to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, concerning the abduction by the Egyptian police of Fathi Abdelradi Abdelsalam Reda on 3 August 2014. Last seen on 4 August, his family fears he will be subjected to ill-treatment during his secret detention.

Omani writer and blogger, Muawiya Alrawahi was released on 11 August after a month of detention including 28 days in the psychiatric department of Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. Arrested on 12 July 2014 for criticizing the Omani authorities on his blog, Alrawahi was transferred to the hospital where he remained under the custody of police officers.

On 30 July 2014, Alkarama wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to bring to its attention the cases of Tarek Mostafa Marei and Abdel Karim Al Mustafa, two Lebanese citizens sentenced on 6 August 2013 to 15 years in prison after a trial marred with serious violations.

Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly wrote to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to ask for the immediate release of Abbas Fadhil Abboud Kadhim Al Batawi, disappeared since his arrest by a pro-government militia almost eight years ago. Although the 20-year old Iraqi student was seen on a video footage in 2007, the authorities continue to deny his detention.

Geneva, August 5, 2014

Madame High Commissioner,

Alkarama deplores that since the launch of the 'Operation Protective Edge', over 1700 Palestinians have been killed, over 70% of which are civilians, of whom 377 are children and 196 are women, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. On the other hand, 67 Israeli were killed, including 64 soldiers, and unfortunately three civilians.