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On April 10, 2018, Alkarama solicited the intervention of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of Saudi human rights defender Mohammad Abdullah Al Otaibi, requesting that the UN experts issue a decision calling for his immediate release.

On January 25, 2018, as a result of making use of his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association, Al Otaibi was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment following a grossly unfair trial.

Geneva (April 11, 2018) – On April 10, 2018, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir issued a decree “setting free all political detainees in the country,” state media organisation Sudan News Agency reported.

UPDATE: Abdul Latif Abdul Latif Ali was released on April 10, 2018 following the issuance of a presidential decree “setting free all political detainees in the country.” Read more

On March 26, 2018, Alkarama submitted its shadow report ahead of Qatar’s upcoming review by the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) during its 63rd Session in May 2018.

On March 29, 2018, Alkarama submitted its shadow report ahead of Saudi Arabia’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council.

On April 5, 2018, the UN Human Rights Committee (HR Committee) published its Concluding Observations after reviewing Lebanon’s implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) – ratified by Lebanon in 1972 – during an interactive dialogue in March 2018.

In November 2018, Jordan’s human rights record will be reviewed before the UN Human Rights Council during the country’s third Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR process sets out “to prompt, support, and expand the promotion and protection of human rights on the ground” by assessing the human rights situation in each of the UN Member States every four and a half years.

(L-R) Mohamad Tabanja, Ahmad Haj-Bakri, Ahmad Zanbelkji

On February 16, 2018, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians submitted four more cases of individuals who disappeared following their arrests at checkpoints in Syria to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID).

Between December 2017 and February 2018, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly submitted seven more cases of disappearances in Iraq to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED).

Hamid Al Zoubai, Ahmad Al Dulaimi, cousins Duraid and Sattar Al Janabi, and brothers Falih, Salih and Meshtaq Al Janabi all disappeared in 2014 in different regions of the country.

On February 20 and March 7, 2018, Alkarama and the Libyan Organization for Truth and Justice submitted two cases to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) of Libyan citizens who have been missing since their abductions in May 2017 and January 2018.