Under the weight of repression in the Arab world, human rights activists and defenders as well as their families increasingly dread exposing human rights violations for fear of reprisals or lack of faith in international human rights mechanisms.

The United Nations General Assembly should act swiftly to establish an investigative mechanism to gather and preserve evidence of serious human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war in Yemen, a coalition of more than 60 organizations said today. Failure to act would not only be a vote for impunity in Yemen, it would be tantamount to a green light to commit further abuses and war crimes.

The family of UAE activist Abd al-Salam Darwish al-Marzouqi is in mourning after the death of his son Salman, whose health had deteriorated severely in the absence of his father, currently serving a ten-year sentence, nine of which were spent in Al Razeen prison. Abd al-Salam Darwish al-Marzouqi is detained following his conviction in the famous “UAE 94” trial in reprisal for having exercised his rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which monitors the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, ratified by Iraq on 23 November 2010, urged the State party on 18 November 2021 to locate and return to Iraq Mr Mohammed AL DARAJI, who has been missing since he was abducted from his home on 10 February 2014.

On 09 November 2021, Alkarama addressed the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the situation of Saud  Al Hashimi who has been arbitrarily detained since his arrest by the intelligence services (Mahabith) on 02 February 2007.

Danish citizen of Lebanese origin Arabi Ali Muhammad Ibrahim was released after 11 days of arbitrary and illegal detention. On 29 October 2021, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances. Lebanese security forces had abducted Mr Arabi Ali Muhammad Ibrahim on 20 October 2021 in the Al-Mankoubin neighbourhood of Tripoli, Lebanon.

Families of Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo Bay, UAE, have expressed their joy at the release of their 12 detainees after a journey of suffering that lasted nearly 20 years, expressing their thanks for the efforts of human rights organisations that supported their claims and made their voices heard in the world, until their  freedom was finally restored

Alkarama expresses its shock at the death of Saudi academic Musa Al-Qarni while in detention due to his deteriorating health, after nearly 15 years of detention, despite the publication of a UN resolution confirming the arbitrary nature of his detention along with eight other personalities, including political activist Saud Mukhtar Al-Hashemi, on whose behalf Alkarama wrote to the UN special procedures.

The undersigned civil society organisations express their condemnation and deep disappointment at the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to terminate the mandate of the Panel of Eminent Experts on Yemen, the only impartial international mechanism tasked with investigating human rights violations and gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by all parties to the armed conflict in the country.

Alkarama and some 30 human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have invited member states of the UN General Assembly to join the "Joint Interregional Statement on Reprisals during the Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders".