Articles for

As organizations working to protect the rights of children and health workers in armed conflict, we are shocked by your decision announced on June 6, 2016 to remove the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition from the "list of shame" annexed to your published 2016 annual report to the United Nations Security Council on children and armed conflict, "pending the conclusions of [a] joint review" of the cases and numbers included in the text.

On 25 May 2016, Hany Mohamed Hassanin Sharaf, founder of the Civilized Alternative Party and former Egyptian Air Force pilot, was released from jail after spending more than six months in arbitrary detention. Prosecuted under trumped-up charges that were triggered by his political activism and in particular his work on the creation of a new opposition party, Hany was facing death penalty in case of a trial before a military court.

Human rights stand, alongside development and peace and security, as one of three pillars of the UN's work. Human rights defenders, being essential actors in the promotion and protection of human rights and the prevention of violations, should be at the core of this work. Despite this, in all regions of the world, human rights defenders face unacceptable restrictions and risks – from defamation to criminalisation, and from arbitrary detention to torture.

On 15 February 2016, 21 year-old student Adam Al Natour, a Polish and Jordanian binational, was sentenced to four years in prison by the State Security Court after a flawed trial during which confessions he was forced to sign under torture were used against him.

On 27 May 2016, Alkarama submitted its shadow report to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRCtee) on the situation of civil and political rights in view of Kuwait's third periodic review which will take place on 21 a

In late April 2016, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), a group of independent experts, adopted WGAD Opinion n°7/2016.

On 26 and 27 May 2016, the Yemeni citizens Abdulrahman Saeed Hasan Al Buriahi and Abdjulmajid bin Mahmoud Ali Al Hatari were released by the Houthi-Saleh Coalition after having been secretly detained for more than five and ten months respectively.

On 29 May 2016, after more than one month in detention, Mohamed Faroug Suliman Mahmoud and Murtada Ibrahim Idriss Habani, two senior members of Sudanese opposition parties, were finally released by the authorities. They had been arrested by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) on 23 April 2016 after having joined a peaceful demonstration that took place at the University of Kordofan.

On 24 May 2016, Alkarama has provided the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon with a report detailing reprisals taken by Arab States against human rights defenders (HRDs). Once again this past year, HRDs have suffered from harassment and intimidation for their cooperation with the United Nations (UN), especially in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco and Oman.

On 5 May 2016, several students, amongst which 25-year-old Wifag Mohamed Gourashi Al Tayib, were abducted by officers of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), as they were meeting a lawyer after they were expelled from Khartoum University in reprisals for their participation to peaceful demonstrations.