Algeria
Bahrain
Djibouti
Egypt
Iraq
Palestine/Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Other Countries
Egypt: Alkarama Submits its Observations on the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights
On 24 June 2016, Alkarama sent a report to the Sub Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC-NHRI) in view of its review of Egypt's National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) at its next session in November 2016. Recalling that the NCHR had not been reviewed since 2006, Alkarama stressed that it had not been able to independently and impartially promote and protect human rights in Egypt and it therefore invited the Sub-Committee to downgrade the NCHR from status A to B to mark its non-compliance with international standards.
Iraq: Alkarama Calls Upon the UN to Establish a Commission of Inquiry on the Crimes Committed by Iraqi Security Forces and Affiliated Militias in Fallujah
On 23 June 2016, Alkarama wrote to the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, deploring the summary executions, enforced disappearances and torture by the Iraqi military forces and state-sponsored militias – including those belonging to the "People's Mobilisation Unit", an umbrella organisation of about 40 militias under the effective control of the Prime Minister – directed against the civilian population fleeing Fallujah.
Iraq: Disappearance of Three Soldiers Who Escaped from Speicher Military Base Massacre
On 12 June 2014, armed groups affiliated to the 'Islamic State' (IS) took over the Speicher base – a military base and air force training college situated between the cities of Beiji and Tikrit in the Salahuddin province – and executed more than 1500 Iraqi soldiers. Aware that IS was advancing towards the base, several military commanders ordered their subordinates to leave to save their lives.
Israel: UN Group Says Detention of "Hares Boys" For Stone Throwing is Arbitrary and Discriminatory
Geneva, 21 June 2016
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has recently published its Opinion on the case of Mohammed Mahdi Saleh Suleiman, a Palestinian teenager who was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a military court for "throwing stone" in the Hares Boys case. In the decision, the UN experts qualified his detention as 'discriminatory' and 'arbitrary' while calling upon Mohammed's immediate release by Israel.
Lebanon: Disappearance of a Syrian Citizen from the General Security Premises in Beirut
On 26 May 2016, the Juvenile Court of North Lebanon sitting in Tripoli ordered the release of Syrian baker Malaz Asaad, pending final determination of the length of his sentence. Handed over to the General Security the following day to implement the Court's decision, Malaz was however never set free and is disappeared since.
Syria: Two Brothers Missing Since Their 2013 Abduction by Military Security
Between February and March 2013, two brothers of the Al Arnaout family were arrested in Homs by the Military Security. More than three years later, their whereabouts remain unknown. Concerned over their fate, Alkarama submitted in June 2016 their case to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID), hoping its intervention will help shed light on their fate.
