Silenced, Imprisoned, and Killed: Human Rights in the Middle East in 2024
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights documents a year of mounting repression across the MENA region, from mass trials in the UAE to the killing of journalists in Lebanon and Gaza.
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), an independent NGO based in Lebanon, has released its 2024 Annual Report, painting a sobering picture of the human rights landscape across the Middle East and North Africa. Covering the period from January to December 2024, the report documents systematic repression of activists, journalists, lawyers, and ordinary citizens across twelve countries — with few signs of meaningful improvement.
A Year of Repression
The scale of GCHR's documentation effort in 2024 was considerable. The organisation issued 86 appeals and urgent actions, published 22 reports either alone or jointly with partners, and participated in advocacy at all three annual sessions of the UN Human Rights Council. Behind each number lies an individual story — a blogger imprisoned, a lawyer assassinated, a journalist killed.
Arbitrary arrest and detention remained, in the report's own assessment, among the most pervasive tools of repression deployed by governments across the region. Torture and ill-treatment in detention — carried out with near-total impunity — continued to be documented in country after country.
The UAE84 Trial
One of the year's gravest developments unfolded in the United Arab Emirates, where the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court handed down sentences ranging from ten years to life imprisonment against 53 defendants in what became known as the UAE84 case — described by GCHR as the country's second-largest unfair mass trial. Among those sentenced was Ahmed Mansoor, a member of GCHR's own Advisory Board, who has been held in solitary confinement at Al-Sadr prison in Abu Dhabi since 2017, serving a combined 25-year sentence while suffering from chronic health conditions. The case drew particular condemnation for its roots in the peaceful formation of an independent advocacy group over a decade earlier.
Journalists Under Fire in Lebanon and Gaza
The report's Lebanon chapter is among its most distressing. By November 2024, more than 170 journalists had been killed in Palestine and Lebanon since the outbreak of war in October 2023. Eight journalists were killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon alone during this period. On 25 October 2024, three Lebanese journalists camera operator Ghassan Najjar, engineer Mohamed Reda, and camera operator Wissam Qassem were killed in a single Israeli airstrike on guesthouses in Hasbaya in south-eastern Lebanon, where over a dozen journalists from at least seven media organizations were staying.
GCHR Executive Director Khalid Ibrahim captured the magnitude of the crisis starkly, noting that a full report detailing all journalists killed in the MENA region to mark the International Day to End Impunity would run to nearly 200 pages.
Bahrain: 5,000 Days and Counting
In Bahrain, December 2024 marked a grim milestone: 5,000 days of arbitrary detention for Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a Danish-Bahraini human rights defender and GCHR co-founder. While GCHR welcomed the release of some political prisoners — including Naji Fateel and Sayed Nizar Alwadaei — during a royal pardon, subsequent releases failed to include Al-Khawaja or Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, who has been on hunger strike for years. GCHR continues to press authorities for their release under alternative sentencing.
Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise, Sports washing Advances
Saudi Arabia received the most appeals of any country covered in the report — 20 in total. GCHR documented a sharp rise in executions in 2024, alongside the continued imprisonment of women's rights defenders. The report was notably critical of international actors, raising concerns about the awarding of the 2034 FIFA Men's World Cup to Saudi Arabia and the hosting of the Internet Governance Forum there, arguing that such decisions enable the kingdom to sanities its global image while serious violations continue domestically. The EU, in its own dialogue with Saudi authorities, expressed concern about the sharp rise in executions and long prison sentences imposed for social media activity.
Iraq: Activists and Lawyers Assassinated
Iraq remained one of the most physically dangerous environments for human rights defenders. GCHR documented the murders of at least seven HRDs and activists during 2024. Among them were two lawyers — Haider Hussein Al-Issawi and Ahmed Abbas Kadhim Al-Asadi — killed in separate targeted assassinations. Blogger Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi (known as Om Fahad) was shot by a motorcycle-riding assailant outside her home in Baghdad in April 2024. The report noted that demonstrations calling for reform continue to be severely repressed, with excessive force used even against protests involving health professionals.
Iran: Women's Rights and the Death Penalty
Iran's civic space remains classified as "closed" by the CIVICUS Monitor — the most severe rating possible. Hundreds of people, including activists, were executed in 2024. GCHR expressed particular alarm at the criminalization of advocacy for women's rights and gender equality, and reported on three women still facing the death penalty: Kurdish journalist Pakhshan Azizi, labour activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, and women's rights activist Varisheh Moradi. The report also highlighted Iran's refusal to cooperate with UN special procedures, leaving many defenders without protection.
Syria: A Moment of Hope Amid Grief
Syria offered one of the report's rare notes of cautious optimism. In December 2024, GCHR welcomed the fall of the Al-Assad government after years of devastating human rights violations, and reported that writer Tal Al-Mallouhi had been freed after remaining in prison beyond the end of her five-year sentence. The organization paid tribute to the many defenders who sacrificed everything to defend human rights in Syria, including Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Al-Khalil, Nazem Hammadi, Khalil Ma'touq, and Bassel Khartabil.
Kuwait and the Bedoon Community
Kuwait received the highest number of appeals in the report — 13 — reflecting a year of significant restrictions on the right to form and join independent associations. The Emir's decision to suspend the elected parliament for up to four years triggered prosecution of parliamentarians and political activists. GCHR's report highlighted the particular vulnerability of Kuwait's Bedoon community — stateless residents who face criminal charges simply for expressing support for their own rights.
What GCHR Recommends
The report closes with five recommendations directed at governments across the MENA region and the international community. These include repealing vague and punitive legislation that criminalizes peaceful human rights work, enacting laws that protect freedom of expression and assembly in line with international standards, repealing oppressive laws limiting women's freedom, and enabling thorough independent investigations into attacks and disappearances. GCHR also calls on the international community to stop emboldening MENA governments by legitimizing their attempts to sanities their global image through events like sporting tournaments and governance forums.
The GCHR 2024 Annual Report was published in March 2025. GCHR is based in Lebanon and works across the Gulf region and neighboring countries. Contact: info@gc4hr.org | www.gc4hr.org
