Amnesty MENA

News and campaigns from Amnesty International's regional offices in the MENA. For Arabic content, follow @AmnestyAR.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance on 30 August, Amnesty International and 13 associations of families of the disappeared and missing persons, alongside human rights organizations from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), warned that authorities continue to use enforced disappearance as a tool of repression while intensifying crackdowns on families seeking truth, justice and reparations.

From Algeria to Yemen, Iraq, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and beyond, families of the disappeared continue to confront impunity and demand truth, justice and reparations. In Algeria, the cost for doing so has been harassment and detention.

On the International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, we stand with families of the missing and forcibly disappeared across the region and call for an end to enforced disappearance, impunity and reprisals against those seeking the truth.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

More than 10 years on, at least 643 men and boys forcibly disappeared by Popular Mobilization Units during military operations in Iraq to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State armed group in June 2016, remain missing.

Despite the authorities setting up committees to investigate the disappearances, no findings have been made public. Their fate remains unknown and their families and loved ones remain in a limbo. They have the right to know the truth; they need answers.

Iraqi authorities must urgently establish genuine mechanisms, which meet international standards, to investigate allegations of disappearances, reveal the fate and whereabouts of those missing and ensure accountability for the violations they and their families have been suffering. They must also act to criminalize enforced disappearance in Iraqi law, adopt a comprehensive national strategy to address the issue and provide victims and their families with inclusive and meaningful reparations and support.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

A counterterrorism law enacted in Kuwait in the wake of Iranian strikes on the Gulf, following the unlawful US-Israeli attacks on Iran, contains overly broad and vague provisions that threaten the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association and movement, while significantly expanding the scope of the death penalty. https://t.co/zjeL0YDiSB

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

⚠️French-Egyptian national Dr Amr Abdelfattah has been detained in Saudi Arabia for over two years. He was arrested in June 2024 after performing the Hajj pilgrimage for an invalid visa permit. He was put on trial before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) and learned during trial proceedings he was also being charged with expression-related offences.

In August 2026, his lawyer in France learned he had been sentenced to “years” in prison but was not told the specific sentence or basis for conviction. Since his arrest, Saudi authorities have denied him full access to a lawyer, subjected him to repeat bouts of torture and ill-treatment, held him incommunicado, and repeatedly denied him contact with his family.

Saudi authorities must immediately release him: https://t.co/sazxOLFvp1

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Authorities and forces affiliated with Hamas in the occupied Gaza Strip must put an end to extrajudicial executions of suspected collaborators with Israel, carried out in the absence of any judicial proceedings https://t.co/Q4LlAGlnop

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

⚠️Human rights lawyer Hoda Abdelmoniem has been arbitrarily detained for more than seven years. Despite completing her unjust five-year prison sentence in October 2023, she remains in detention and is now standing trial in two separate cases on similar bogus terrorism-related charges. Her health has deteriorated in detention and she is unable to walk unassisted. She continues to be transferred from prison to court for hearings in both cases as the court has refused requests to exempt her from appearing in person and allow her lawyer to represent her instead, as permitted under Egyptian law.

Call on @AlsisiOfficial to release her now: https://t.co/mRdq4zhluE

#FreeHodaAbdelmoniem

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

🚨Today, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has spent 600 days behind bars in Israeli detention. He is still being held without charge, separated from his family, his colleagues and the children he lovingly treated.

Recent reports show that there is an imminent threat to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life as a result of torture and other ill treatment he has been suffering while in Israeli custody.

Israeli authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. and all Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel.

Act now and call for his release: https://t.co/0XLnez3OlD

#FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Iraq’s government must deliver on its human rights commitments to end systemic impunity for human rights violations, uphold women’s and girls’ rights, and guarantee fundamental freedoms. https://t.co/xoSfz9ehPo

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

⚠️ Today Marwa Arafa turns 34. This is her 7th birthday behind bars. She has been arbitrarily detained since 2020 solely for helping the families of detainees. The Egyptian authorities must release her NOW.

#FreeMarwaArafa

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

“The horrors unfolding in Qusra are far from an isolated incident. They reflect the relentless escalation and expansion of an accelerating and well-documented pattern of coordinated and strategic settler terror, enabled, backed and funded by the State of Israel, with the aim of displacing Palestinians across the occupied West Bank." https://t.co/rW86zeCImg

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Today, a Syrian court sentenced in absentia former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad and their cousin and former security official Atef Najib to death after convicting them of crimes committed during the conflict. This marks the first such verdict under Syria’s transitional authorities, but to truly turn the page on the horrors of the past, the government should abolish trials in absentia, as well as the use of the death penalty, criminalize core international crimes under national law, and undertake comprehensive judicial reform to ensure that all proceedings fully uphold fair trial guarantees and international law and standards.

Prosecutions for the egregious crimes committed during the Assad-era should be a significant step toward justice, truth and reparation for the tens of thousands of victims. They must take place in front of ordinary civilian courts, with victim participation and without recourse to the death penalty and should form part of a comprehensive, victim-centred, and nationwide strategy that delivers truth, justice, and reparations.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

"Lebanon’s decision to abolish the death penalty marks a major milestone and a victory for human rights in the country. Justice must be rooted in human rights, not in an irreversible and cruel punishment," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International. https://t.co/aejPp8Q9VF

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

The Lebanese Parliament will be reconvening tomorrow and is expected to vote on the media law

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Today Lebanon’s Parliament is due to vote on a new media law that presents an important opportunity to improve respect for the right to freedom of expression and media freedom in the country. While the draft legislation includes important advances for media freedom, including the abolition of pre-trial detention for speech-related offences, it still includes provisions that risk undermining these advances.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Amnesty International’s investigation concludes that the attack that killed prominent Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, and seriously wounded camerawoman Zeinab Faraj in south Lebanon on 22 April 2026, violated international humanitarian law by carrying out a direct attack which failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives. The attack must be investigated as a war crime.
Journalists are civilians.
They are protected under international humanitarian law.
Amal Khalil spent her life documenting the human cost of war.
On that day, she became part of the story herself.
The question now is not what happened.
The evidence is there.
The question is whether there will finally be accountability.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

New @amnesty investigation: An Israeli attack that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and seriously wounded camerawoman Zeinab Faraj in south Lebanon on 22 April 2026 was a direct attack on civilians which should be investigated as a war crime.

There can be no justification for targeting civilians who sought shelter in search of safety.

https://t.co/2ldn8W3ZVx

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

The authorities must seize this moment to turn progress into accountability. Victims, survivors and their families have waited far too long for truth, justice and effective remedy.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

Six years ago on 4 August, the Beirut port explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, devastated large parts of Beirut, killing at least 236 people and injuring over 7,000. Yet to this day, no senior official has been held accountable, and victims, survivors and their families are still denied truth and justice.

[Amnesty MENA @AmnestyMENA]

The authorities must also take all necessary measures to ensure that the investigation can be completed free from undue interference by political leaders, public officials, or anyone implicated in the case.