Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

As the saga of Saudi’s hunted elites commanded attention across the Middle East and North Africa this November, news of the region’s less powerful prey fell by the wayside. Authorities in Kuwait, Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, and Egypt went after protesters, journalists, and human rights defenders critical of their regimes.

Women human rights defenders across the MENA region face many obstacles to their work, including threats, harassment, torture, jail, travel bans and other violations that prevent them from freely carrying out their work. GCHR asks supporters to join the campaign in support of WHRDs worldwide by tweeting #SheDefends.

Charges brought against her included violating public order by creating social networking accounts on Twitter and Facebook to demand the release of detainees.

Our Middle East and North Africa round-up spotlights Bahrain’s first military trial of civilians since 2011, a growing crackdown on members of Egypt’s LGBTQI+ community, and a new player restricting Iranians’ internet access.

The Supreme Court of Oman issued a final ruling on the closure of Azamn, ending the paper’s fight to reopen and shuttering it permanently. Azamn is regarded as an independent newspaper characterised by its anti-corruption reporting since its establishment in 2007.

Our monthly roundup spotllghts Egypt’s latest efforts to control the media (and rainbow flags), the Kurdish referendum (and aftershocks), a campaign to tackle self-censorship in Palestine and much more.

A joint statement by the Association of Progressive Communications, IFEX and 64 co-signatories at the UN-HRC 36 warns of the threat to human rights posed by recent attacks on the right to use encryption technology, in Turkey and across the globe.

In August, human rights defenders Issa Al-Nukhaifi and Essam Koshak were brought to court over their human rights activities, where they learned of charges against them.