On 12 January 2016, Kuwait's new Cyber Crime Law no. 63, which contains provisions that severely restrict freedom of expression on the internet, came into force. Several human rights NGOs criticised this law, as its broad definitions can be used to punish peaceful opposition and dissenting voices.

In its ruling issued on 16 December 2015, the Italian justice has, as expected, rejected the Algerian extradition request of Alkarama's Legal Director, Rachid Mesli. While noting that his activities as a human rights defender were "difficult to reconcile with those of a terrorist," the Court concluded that the Algerian accusations could as well be the result of "political persecution." As the Algerian government has not appealed this decision, Mesli is now free to travel in Italy.

Between 12 and 19 January 2016, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians documented three cases of enforced disappearances that occurred in Syria between November 2011 and October 2013.

On 7 January 2016, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested Orwa Al Sadig Ismail Hamdoun, a political activist affiliated to Sudan's main opposition party − the National Umma Party − and brother to Emad Al Sadig Ismail Hamdoun, arrested at the Omdurman headquarters of the National Umma Party on 14 December 2015.

On 15 January 2016, Alkarama submitted a report to the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC-NHRI) on Bahrain's National Institution for Human Righ

Moroccan journalist and human rights defender, Mustapha El Hasnaoui, was recently placed in solitary confinement by the prison administration of Kenitra prison. His family has had no contact with him since 7 January 2016 and is systematically denied the right to visit.

On 18 October 2014, 55-year-old Haytham Al Dulaimi was arrested in his home by 5 heavily armed men in civilian and military clothes and taken to the Al Aqrab Brigade in Al Hallah. After being acquitted by the Hillah Court, Al Dulaimi was taken to the Hillah Intelligence Branch, from where he was supposed to be released on 30 November 2014. However, Al Dulaimi never left the detention facility and his family has since then received no news of his fate and whereabouts.

On 21 November 2015, 34-year-old reporter at Al Majd TV Mohammad-Adeeb Ahmad Sulaiman Alqeeq was arrested from his home by Israeli soldiers and taken to the Al Jalameh prison, where he was subjected to periods of incommunicado detention and torture. Accused of "inciting violence through the media", Alqeeq remains since in administrative detention.

On 13 and 14 January 2016, Alkarama attended the Regional Conference on "the Role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR] in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in the Arab Region" in Doha, which welcomed 230 participants from governments, regional and civil society organisations and the OHCHR.

On 4 January 2016, Alkarama seized the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) with the case of Abdelkader Belliraj, a 59-year-old Belgian-Moroccan citizen sentenced by the Moroccan authorities to life imprisonment in 2009 on the sole basis of confessions obtained under torture – which is why his case was dismissed in Belgium in October 2013.