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Today, 13 April 2017, Lebanon remembers for the 42^nd year the start of the Lebanese civil war. Lasting for 15 years, between 1975 and 1990, the conflict left around 200,000 people dead and an estimated 17,000 missing persons.

On the night of 22 September 2015, Jalal Al Shahmani, owner of a restaurant and activist, was arrested by militiamen and subsequently disappeared. Concerned over his fate, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent his case to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), hoping that the UN experts’ intervention will help shed light on his fate and whereabouts.

On 30 March, Alkarama and the International Center for Justice and Human Rights have solicited the urgent intervention of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding the case of UAE blogger and human rights defender Osama Al Najjar, who was transferred from Al Rezeen Prison to a “counselling centre”, where he is currently detained against his will and despite the fact that he had completed his three-year prison sentence on 17 March 2017.

On 8 November 2016 Ahmad and Abdullah Al Janabi, two brothers from Al Mahawil, Babil governorate, were arrested at a military checkpoint situated in Al Iskandariya, Babil governorate. Their relatives have no information on their fate and whereabouts since, and they remain disappeared up until today.

Iraqi refugee Zeyad Al Dolaee is currently detained pending final decision about an extradition request against him by the Iraqi authorities, who want him on the basis of alleged accusations of terrorism. Notwithstanding the Public Prosecutor’s view opposing it, Al Dolaee informally got to know that the Ministry of Justice was preparing a decree accepting his extradition request.

On 15 March 2017, Jordanian journalist Taysir Salman, also known as Taysir Al Najjar, was sentenced by the Federal Appeals Court of Abu Dhabi to three years in prison for having violated the cybercrime law by posting critical statements of the UAE’s support to Egypt’s action in Gaza on Facebook.

Yousuf Al Haj is an Omani journalist, who worked for the now banned Al Zaman newspaper. He was arrested in August 2016 and had first been sentenced to three years in prison on 25 September 2016. In December 2016, his sentence was reduced on appeal to one year in prison.

On 4 December 2016, Lebanese citizen, Ahmed Mekkaoui was sentenced by the UAE State Security Circuit of the Federal Supreme Court to 15 years in prison on the basis of confessions that were previously extracted under horrific acts of torture.

On 2 March 2017, during the 34th session of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Nils Melzer, presented the conclusions of the visit carried out in Mauritania by his predecessor Juan Mendez, from 25 January to 3 February 2016. The Special Rapporteur reminded the authorities of the need to apply the existing legislation and the safeguards. He also pointed out the persistence of torture, the poor conditions of detention for prisoners and the issue of pervasive impunity.

On 31 October 2016, United Nations member States reviewed the human rights situation in Syria in the context of the country’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), an interactive discussion between the State under review and other UN Member States which takes place every four years.