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.

On 30 May 2016, the State Security Chamber of the Supreme Court of the United Arab Emirates has acquitted Salim Alaradi and two co-accused after 642 days in detention. While the Security Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed Alaradi's innocence, he was not allowed to leave the Court free, but was taken back to prison by the State Security forces.

After 10 months of enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, Dr Abdelkader Al Guneid, a pediatrician and professor at Taiz University, was finally released the by Houthi-Saleh Coalition on 21 May 2016.

The 66-year-old prominent human rights activist had been arrested on 5 August 2015 by armed men in civilian clothes who had broken into his home and taken him away barefoot.

On 25 March 2015, Walid Issa, a 27-year-old student from Al-Yaarubiyah in the al-Hasakah Governorate, was travelling home from Turkey when, passing in the city of Al Raqqah, he was stopped at Point 11, an area hosting the headquarters of the 'Islamic State' (IS) security offices near the soccer stadium known as "the black stadium." The officers, wearing black uniforms and identifying themselves as IS members, immediately arrested him.

On 19 May 2016, 34-year-old Palestinian journalist at Al Majd TV Mohammad Al-Qeeq was released after six months spent in administrative detention.

On 13 May 2016, the Commission for the Control of Interpol's files decided, after a long legal battle, to drop the international arrest warrant issued in 2003 by the Algerian authorities against lawyer Rachid Mesli, Director of Alkarama's Legal Department.