A first batch of Yemeni Guantanamo detainees held in the UAE has arrived in Hadramot, including six of the 18 detainees hosted by the UAE government which has failed to honour its commitments to them.
The UAE's return of Yemeni Guantanamo detainees comes after a very difficult journey that lasted about 20 years, following extensive media and human rights campaigns.

Libya has seen recent killings of field commanders in General Khalifa Haftar's forces. These include commanders wanted for international crimes because of their involvement in war crimes, including executions against civilians. These assassinations could be part of a ploy to liquidate witnesses against major criminals wanted for justice together with their regional and international supporters.

On 14 July 2021, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the current situation of Mr. Suleiman bin Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Duwaish, who was arrested on 22 April 2016 by the personal guard of Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salmane for a series of critical tweets and has been held in incommunicado detention since then.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has warned of the dangers of the widespread and apparent use of Pegasus spyware to illegally infringe on the rights of those being monitored, including journalists and politicians, as part of tools to intimidate critics and silence dissent. According to the senior UN official, the surveillance programmes arrest, intimidate and even kill journalists and human rights defenders.

A UN expert has deplored the continuing large-scale arrests and prolonged pre-trial detentions of human rights defenders in Egypt, claiming that activists are being held without arrest warrants, held incommunicado and then charged with multiple spurious crimes.
of multiple spurious crimes.

On 21 June 2021, Alkarama submitted to the UN Committee against Torture the list of issues and questions to be raised in the framework of Saudi Arabia's 3rd periodic review.
A treaty body composed of ten independent experts, the Committee against Torture is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment adopted on 10 December 1984 and ratified by Saudi Arabia on 12 September 1989.

On 1 July 2021, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding the situation of Mr Driss SEDRAOUI, President of the Moroccan League for Citizenship and Human Rights, who was arrested and imprisoned for having participated in a rally organised on 8 March 2021 in honour of International Women's Day.

The facts

Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, has called on Morocco to stop "targeting human rights defenders and journalists who defend human rights issues related to Western Sahara, and to allow them to work without reprisals".

Mohammed Al Ahmadi, Selma Ajam, Suheda

Alkarama shares the grief of the family of Emirati prisoner of conscience Mohammed Abdul Razzaq Al-Siddiq and the human rights family in the death of human rights activist Alaa Al-Siddiq, who died following a traffic accident in Oxford, UK.