On 16 September 2016, United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-Moon's last report on reprisals against persons who have cooperated with the UN was presented to the Human Rights Council (HRC) and stressed "the absolute unacceptability of any act of intimidation or reprisal, no matter how seemingly subtle or explicit" and that "such acts, which run contrary to the principle of human dignity and violate numerous human rights, show complete contempt and disregard for the United Nations system as a whole." On 24 May 2016, Alkarama had provided the Secretary General with a report detailing reprisals taken by Arab States against human rights defenders.

29 June 2016
Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned 244 civil society organizations, spanning across all regions of the world, call on your delegation to stand in solidarity with civil society by supporting the draft resolution on the protection of civil society space, to be considered for adoption at the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council (on 30 June or 1 July). We urge you to cosponsor the draft resolution, reject all amendments, and vote in favour of the resolution if a vote is called.

As organizations working to protect the rights of children and health workers in armed conflict, we are shocked by your decision announced on June 6, 2016 to remove the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition from the "list of shame" annexed to your published 2016 annual report to the United Nations Security Council on children and armed conflict, "pending the conclusions of [a] joint review" of the cases and numbers included in the text.

Human rights stand, alongside development and peace and security, as one of three pillars of the UN's work. Human rights defenders, being essential actors in the promotion and protection of human rights and the prevention of violations, should be at the core of this work. Despite this, in all regions of the world, human rights defenders face unacceptable restrictions and risks – from defamation to criminalisation, and from arbitrary detention to torture.