With the court room completely full, most of the people come to show their support for Dr Mourad Dhina were unable to even enter the court room.

After having been ambushed and abducted, having suffered three months of detention and mistreatment, and having been tried before the National Safety Court, established in March 2011 to judge those who supported and participated in the demonstrations, Mattar Mattar's last charge was finally dropped on 2

The chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented its second report to the UN Human Rights Council on 12 March 2012.

Today, 24 international and national human rights organizations addressed recommendations to the UN General Assembly member states, in response to a surprising turn of events in the UN Treaty Body strengthening process.

Alkarama is concerned by the increasing number of cases of arbitrary detention and torture it has received and the ongoing application of the Emergency Law on citizens from Egypt, despite the 2011 revolution which saw the overthrow of the former Mubarak regime.

Alkarama strongly condemns the ongoing repression of large parts of the Syrian population, especiallyin the context of indiscriminate attacks on residential areas. We are further deeply concerned by accounts of the rampant use of torture as well as the wide-spread occurrence of enforced disappearance carried out by the Syrian security services. Targets of these acts are political opponents and human rights defenders together with their relatives as well as civilians with no obvious links to any of the opposition groups.

Update: In addition to the releases announced in our press release of last Monday, we further welcome the release of Dr Mubarak bin Zair, son of Dr Said bin Zair. He was arrested on 21 March 2011 and was arbitrarily detained until his release yesterday, 29 February 2012.

In its first review by a UN human rights committee since former Vice-President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi became President in January 2012 following months of protest, Yemen will be examined by the United Nations' Human Rights Committee in New York on 14 and 15 March 2012.

Nine civilians tried before military courts have been released following a pardon on 25 January 2012 by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forced (SCAF). Given the unlawful nature of their detention, Alkarama submitted their cases to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on 11 October 2011.

Today, Saadeddine Shatila, Alkarama's representative in Lebanon can return to his work assisting victims of human rights violations and lobbying for the authorities to respect their Human Rights obligations.