The Sultanate of Oman, very quickly touched by the uprisings shaking the Arab world, allowed peaceful demonstrations to proceed for almost a month before deciding to put a stop to them through repression. On 29 March 2011, a first wave of repression hit the demonstrators at Sohar; late on the night of Tuesday-Wednesday the security services proceeded to arrest many citizens without a warrant. This operation cost the lives of two people and about fifteen others are still being detained.

Questioned by Aljazeera, some people attested to the seriousness of the situation, saying that they had not seen such popular anger since more than 40 years ago. This country in the Arabian peninsula has experienced a certain stability since the current Sultan reached power in 1970, in particular due to the exploitation of oil deposits. Nonetheless, popular dissent is growing today; more than half the population is under 24, and, despite a generally high level of education which has grown substantially in recent years, cannot find jobs. The demands being made thus relate essentially to the precarious social and economic situation.

Today, human rights activists at the scene estimate that more than 1200 arrests have taken place across the country, and the authorities seem not to be taking any measures to improve this situation. Since the uprisings reached the capital Muscat on 14 May, 79 people have been arrested while demonstrating against the arbitrary detention of peaceful demonstrators.

Human rights defenders and representatives of civil society have been particularly targeted, and have been subjected to repeated threats by the Omani security forces. Many of them have been kidnapped and tortured. Although some were released on 16 and 17 May, the fate and the place of detention of the other detainees remain unknown, and Alkarama is seriously concerned about their situation.