Civil Liberties

A Year Since Salmmah's Closure

By Fahima Hashim, the Director of Salmmah Women's Resource Centre, on the one-year anniversary of the organisations's closure by the Sudanese government.

Today marks one year since the closure of Salmmah Women's Resource Centre by the government of Sudan (on the 24th June 2014).

Sudan: Surge in Detention, Beatings, Around Elections

(Nairobi) – Security forces in Sudan arrested dozens of opposition party members, students, and political activists, in the lead up to, during, and after national elections, April 13 to 16, 2015.

Those arrested included people participating in a campaign to boycott the elections “Irhal” (or “Go!” in Arabic). The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies, in a statement released the day after polls closed, documented 22 arrests on April 12 alone. Sudanese monitoring groups have reported dozens of additional arrests.

Missing female Sudanese rights activist found beaten in street

April 15, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – A female Sudanese activist was found badly beaten at a street in Khartoum after going missing for several days.

Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition Urges Egyptian Authorities To Drop Charges Against Azza Soliman

The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, of which WLUML is a member, is alarmed that the Prosecutor General at the Qasr El Nile Prosecution Office in Cairo has rejected appeals for lawyer and woman human rights defender Azza Soliman to be listed as a witness rather than a defendant in the case of Shaimaa ElSabbagh, who was killed while peacefully protesting on January 24 2015.

Egypt: Women's rights activist among 17 facing spurious charges in security forces' 'cover up'

Spuriou

Bahrain: Authorities continue to target women’s rights defender Ghada Jamsheer

2015-03-25

Egypt: Judicial harassment of Ms. Azza Soliman

Via FIDH

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the judicial harassment of Ms. Azza Soliman, human rights lawyer and founder of the Centre for Egyptian Women Legal Aid (CEWLA).

India: Statement of Solidarity with Human Rights Defenders Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand

Via SIAWI

As international networks and organisations concerned with equality between all citizens before the law, standing for secularism as prevention of communalism, we are closely following and monitoring the case against human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad and husband Javed Anand in India.

Egypt: Press Release by the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders on the Appeal Verdict in the Case of Yara Sallam and Sanaa Seif

The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa, Ms Reine Alapini-Gansou, has been informed of the sentence handed down on appeal against human rights defenders Yara Sallam, Sanaa Seif and 21 other co-accused on Sunday, 28 December 2014, in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The Special Rapporteur condemns the sentence which runs completely counter to the principles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter), and other regional and international instruments duly ratified by Egypt.

Prominent Women Human Rights Defender Esraa Abdel-Fattah Banned From Traveling Outside Egypt

13/01/2015

On the morning of 13 January 2015, Cairo International Airport stopped prominent women human rights defender Esraa Abdel-Fattah from embarking on a flight to Germany, and Ms. Abdel-Fattah was informed that this is a result of a travel ban issued against her by the security administration. Esraa Abdel-Fattah was not notified prior to this morning that there is a travel ban officially issued against her.