62 human rights organizations, including Alkarama, sent letter to members of the United Nations Human Rights Council ahead of the Council's 48th session, calling for the formation of an international investigative body focusing on criminal cases in Yemen and ensuring the continuity of the work of the Panel of Eminent Experts on Yemen under a continuous or multi-year mandate.

On September 6, 2021, Alkarama seized the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur against Torture regarding the situation of Mohammed AL QAHTANI, human rights defender and founding member of the Saudi Association of civil and political rights (ACPRA), sentenced on March 9, 2013 to ten years in prison and arbitrarily placed in detention in Al Hai'ir prison (Riyadh) in a section reserved for detainees suffering from psychological disorders.

The facts

Saudi human rights sources have reported that human rights defender Issa Al-Nukhaifi went on hunger strike while in detention in Al-Ha'ir prison in Riyadh, without giving details of the reason. However, according to reliable reports, the Saudi authorities have recently increased their repressive measures against prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders.

On 24 August 2021, Alkarama seized the UN Special Rapporteur against Torture regarding the situation of  20 years old Yasser ROUIBAH, victim of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted by Algerian police officers.

As part of its ongoing repressive policies against peaceful activists, the Saudi authorities have increased the prison sentence against detained activist Muhammad Abdullah Al-Otaibi, adding three years to his main sentence (for travelling to Qatar in 2017).

On 11 August 2021, Alkarama seized the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the situation of Mr Sulaiman Muhammad Salim SULAIMAN and Mr Abdelhakim Imabarak Mohammed ALI, both arrested in 2016 by the "Special Deterrence Forces" in Libya.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regretted that the Government of Libya's National Accord did not comply with the team's recommendations regarding the release of Mr Mustafa Talib Younis Abdel Khaleq Al-Darsi, who has been arbitrarily detained since 6 January 2016, calling for his immediate release and compensation.

More than 9 months after his abduction and enforced disappearance by Yemeni forces acting on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, Yemeni preacher Abdul Qadir Al-Badhiji (Al-Shaibani), for whom Alkarama made an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Involuntary Disappearances, has been released.

A report published by the United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) highlighted the need to prevent torture in places of detention in Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region, highlighting a number of issues that Alkarama had raised in recent years in this regard as part of its concerns about the human rights situation in the country.