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Between 30 April and 4 May, Ben Emmerson, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (SRCT), visited Saudi Arabia to assess government initiatives and policies in the area of combating terrorism and how they affect the promotion and protection of human rights in the country.

On 27 April 2017, Alkarama sent urgent appeals to the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression (SRFRDX) and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concerning the case of ten individuals, including nine journalists prosecuted in the “Raba’a Operations Room” mass trial. In December 2015, their first sentence was quashed by the Court of Cassation and a new decision will be taken on 8 May 2017.

On 21 April 2017, Alkarama received confirmation that prominent Kuwaiti human rights defender and former parliamentarian Musallam Al Barrak, was released from prison after having served his full two- year sentence. Al Barrak is a known opposition parliamentarian, who has marked the political life in Kuwait by actively and courageously speaking up against human rights violations and government corruption. In February 2015, he was convicted for “insulting the Emir”.

On 25 April 2017, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians referred to the Syrian Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) the cases of seven men summarily executed in 2012. In late February of that year, these men, aged from 31 to 66 years old, were summarily executed by the Syrian military forces, during raids carried out in Kafr Al Tun, 60 kms north of Homs, merely because of their religious beliefs.

On 21 April 2017, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders (SRHRD) and the Special Rapporteur on torture (SRT) requesting them to act urgently concerning the case of 56-year-old human rights activist Dr Ahmed Shawky Abdelsattar Mohamed Amasha, who was abducted on 10 March 2017 at a police checkpoint in Cairo and who remained disapp

On 2 July 2014, a group of soldiers of the Iraqi Army raided Ali Al Janabi’s house in Latifiya and arrested him. This is the last time his family saw him, as he subsequently disappeared.

Prosecuted for having exercised his right to freedom of expression…

Today, 13 April 2017, Lebanon remembers for the 42^nd year the start of the Lebanese civil war. Lasting for 15 years, between 1975 and 1990, the conflict left around 200,000 people dead and an estimated 17,000 missing persons.

On the night of 22 September 2015, Jalal Al Shahmani, owner of a restaurant and activist, was arrested by militiamen and subsequently disappeared. Concerned over his fate, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent his case to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), hoping that the UN experts’ intervention will help shed light on his fate and whereabouts.

On 30 March, Alkarama and the International Center for Justice and Human Rights have solicited the urgent intervention of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding the case of UAE blogger and human rights defender Osama Al Najjar, who was transferred from Al Rezeen Prison to a “counselling centre”, where he is currently detained against his will and despite the fact that he had completed his three-year prison sentence on 17 March 2017.