Purpose:To inform the High Commissioner’s report pursuant to the Human Rights Council resolution 59/10.
In its resolution 59/10, the Human Rights Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to “prepare a thematic report in follow-up to the report containing practical recommendations for the creation and maintenance of a safe and enabling environment for civil society, based on good practices and lessons learned, submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-second session, to review progress against the recommendations contained therein, to identify new and emerging trends concerning civil society space, including through an analysis of the specific contribution and risks faced by underrepresented parts of civil society, and to provide an updated set of recommendations in the light of those trends, and to present the report to the Council at its sixty-third session.”
OHCHR invites States to respond to this online survey and share good practices and measures to protect and promote civic space in their countries, with a focus on the five areas outlined in the previous report (A/HRC/32/20) – as reflected below – on “practical recommendations for the creation and maintenance of a safe and enabling environment for civil society, based on good practices and lessons learned.” Please take the online survey here: English – French – Spanish
OHCHR also invites civil society, non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions, United Nations entities and other relevant stakeholders, to respond to this online survey. If you are an organization working in a specific country, please provide information related to that country or context. If you represent a global and regional organization, please consider providing information for as many regions and/or countries as appropriate. Please take the online survey here: English– French– Spanish
UN human rights experts on 5 February 2026 urged China to immediately grant full access to adequate medical treatment for woman human rights defender, Yang Li, from Jintan, Jiangsu Province, saying that her attempts to travel to Beijing for medical appointments have been intercepted on numerous occasions and allegedly resulted in her arbitrary detention.
“The arrest and indictment of Yang Li appear to represent an effort by the authorities to prevent her from peacefully exercising her rights to seek redress for legitimate grievances. This harassment is compounded by the fact that it was coupled with preventing her from accessing medical treatment,” the experts said.
Yang Li has been advocating against land requisition and crop clearance being carried out by the authorities in Jiangsu Province since 2009. Her efforts to seek redress for her family and members of her community through filing petitions have led to her being administratively detained multiple times since 2014.
Since 2023, Yang Li has consistently attempted to travel to Beijing to file petitions and receive medical treatment. During these attempts, she has been subjected to physical assaults, administrative detention and been prevented from accessing necessary medical treatment – reportedly by officials from the Jintan and Beijing police. In October 2024, Yang Li was placed in criminal detention for the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which was later changed to “disrupting the work order of state organs.” Yang Li was convicted in September 2025 and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment in a judicial process that indicated several fair trial inconsistencies.
“Yang Li is in urgent need of adequate medical treatment, capable of responding to the late-stage kidney disease she is suffering from,” the experts said. “Her condition appears to have worsened significantly as a result of the repeated denial of medical care, her treatment whilst in prison and the stress she has been subjected to through numerous detentions that appear to have been carried out without legal basis or justification.”
“We urge the authorities to cease the harassment and intimidation of Yang Li and her family and allow her full, immediate access to medical treatment of her choosing, to ensure her health does not further deteriorate and to prevent long-lasting impacts,” the experts said.
The experts have been in contact with the Government of China on these issues.
Philippe Bolopion, Executive Director of HRW, starts the annual report of 2026 with the following words: “The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.“
…In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers…
A summary can be found in Al-Jazeera of 4 February 2026
On 29 January 2026 ISHR, in collaboration with its various partners, announced that it has established a network of legal professionals for the protection of human rights defenders in Africa
Legal professionals and human rights defenders from several African countries came together to finalise the establishment of a network for the protection of human rights defenders in Africa.
This Network aims to be a space for collaboration, solidarity and strategic legal action, with a view to strengthening the collective response to violations of the rights of human rights defenders in Africa. Its establishment is part of a project implemented by the International Service for Human Rights with the support of Open Society Foundations, and in collaboration with national and regional human rights networks.
Participants at this regional meeting reviewed the Network’s founding charter, defining its principles, governance and operating procedures, and identifying common priorities for strengthening the legal protection of human rights defenders on the continent.
Participants noted that in some African countries, violations, criminalisation and impunity persist, even in contexts with specific legal frameworks. Emphasising the need to move beyond isolated approaches, participants agreed to strengthen regional coordination among legal professionals.
During the meeting, the Network members agreed on a set of common principles and values, including a defender-centred approach, commitment, solidarity, independence, apoliticality, professionalism, integrity, and confidentiality. They also defined clear criteria for the Network’s engagement in situations of violations, in order to ensure responsible, strategic actions that respect the safety of defenders.
The meeting also served as an opportunity to discuss the legal challenges faced by defenders in different national contexts, as well as regional and international mechanisms that could strengthen their access to justice and protection.
The members of the Network committed to continuing the work begun at this meeting and to translating the adopted recommendations into concrete actions:
For countries that have not yet adopted an act on the recognition and protection of human rights defenders, to adopt such legislation.
For countries that have adopted such legislation, to implement it and establish national mechanisms for the protection of human rights defenders.
Today, 24 January 2026, marks the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer. In recognition of endangered lawyers around the world, the undersigned NGOs, express deep alarm at the growing repression of lawyers worldwide for the legitimate exercise of their professional duties. Attacks on lawyers strike at the very heart of the rule of law, deny victims meaningful access to justice, and enable wider assaults on human rights and democratic institutions.
In Russia, the regime of Vladimir Putin has moved to punish not only opponents but also those who defend them. One year ago this month, to cite just one example, lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser, and Igor Sergunin, members of the defense team of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were sentenced to an average of four and a half years in prison on fabricated extremism charges simply for carrying out their ordinary professional duties. Since then, Russia has intensified its harassment of lawyers, most recently arresting human rights attorney Maria Bontsler in May 2025.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s seizure of the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association and the transfer of licensing to the Ministry of Justice effectively stripped thousands of lawyers of their right to practise, with women lawyers almost entirely excluded from the profession.
In Iran, recent reports show a pattern of state capture of bar associations, politically motivated prosecutions, and gender specific persecution of women lawyers, which together erode fair trial guarantees for all.
In Tanzania, legal advocates have faced systemic oppression from the government, including oppression under the Advocates Act, which gives the executive branch power to manage the legal profession and control over disciplinary measures against lawyers.
In China, the regime systematically cracks down on human rights lawyers, using vague national security laws and administrative controls to dismantle the independent legal profession.
These examples are a part of a wider and well-documented trend. Lawyers are disbarred, disciplined, arbitrarily detained, prosecuted, forced into exile, subjected to surveillance and harassment, and in some cases killed, precisely because they seek to uphold the rights of their clients, including human rights defenders, opposition leaders, journalists, women, minorities, and other marginalized communities.
Despite this, lawyers continue to perform a crucial function. Even in countries without an independent and impartial judiciary, where judicial outcomes are largely predetermined, lawyers document abuses, create records of testimonies and verdicts, and preserve evidence that can one day support accountability. Their efforts also enable recourse to international and regional mechanisms once domestic remedies have been exhausted or shown to be ineffective. As the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers recognized in her 2024 report, “justice systems play an essential role in safeguarding democracy, and the work of those justice systems is carried out by people. To protect the rule of law and democracy, we must protect those people.”
Justice is never won easily. But it cannot be won at all if those who defend it are left defenseless.
On May 13, 2025, the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer opened for signature. This is the first international treaty specifically designed to safeguard lawyers from threats, harassment, and undue interference in their work. This is a historic breakthrough, but it will mean little if governments fail to give it real force. We call on all CoE member states to sign and ratify the Convention without delay and to implement it fully. We encourage states in other regions to develop complementary binding standards so that protection of the legal profession becomes a universal norm…
No lawyer should be punished for defending a client. We honour the courage of all endangered lawyers working under threat, and we reaffirm our collective commitment to protect them and to uphold the right of every person to an independent defense and a fair trial.
Respectfully,
Human Rights Foundation
The Anti-Corruption Foundation
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative
Free Russia Foundation
Freedom House
Freedom Now
George W. Bush Institute
Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign
Human Rights First
Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
Elisa Massimino, Human Rights Institute, Georgetown Law
Several media (such as the CSR Journal and Barrons) and NGO (Frontline) talk about the case of human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband and fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha who were sentenced 10-year-jail by an Islamabad court on 24 January 2026 over anti-state social media posts. However, the pressure and arrest haven’t been able to silence her voice. She said to media agencies, “We will not back down. Truth seems overwhelmingly difficult in this country. But we knew that when we got into this work, we’re ready to face that,”. Mazari noted that the prison term won’t dent her resolve.
Imaan Mazari is a 32-year-old human rights lawyer from Pakistan who rose to fame for fighting some of the most sensitive cases and she has been defending ethnic minorities, journalists facing defamation charges and some of her clients have been branded blasphemers. With Mazari’s coming to prominence, so did the charges by the Pakistani government for cyber terrorism and hate speech. As per a court document, Mazari has been disseminating highly offensive content.
Mazari comes from a well-known family, she is the daughter of former minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari, and her late father was one of the top paediatricians of South Asia. Because of her strong determination of fighting back despite all odds, she is being compared to Pakistan’s one of the popular human rights lawyers, late Asma Jahangir. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/14CC52FE-5F1B-4EF8-B1F5-607ED173AACC]
Mazari is a pro bono lawyer, she has handled some of the most sensitive cases in Pakistan, e.g. enforced disappearances of ethnic Balochs, she defended Mahrang Baloch. She has also taken up blasphemy cases.
Last year, the UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders said, “Cases against her appear to reflect an arbitrary use of the legal system to harass and intimidate”. She was first targeted in a press conference held sometime in early January, where a military spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, shared Mazari’s post on X posts and filed a case against her, stating her as, “hidden elements committing subtle crimes. They operate under the guise of democracy and human rights to promote terrorism,”.
On 15 January 2026 – the third anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Díaz – UN experts demanded immediate answers about the fate and whereabouts of the two Mexican human rights defenders. “Mexican authorities must comply with the State’s international obligations, including by investigating the enforced disappearance, proactively searching for them, determining their fate and whereabouts, and holding perpetrators criminally responsible,” the experts said.
On 15 January 2023, Ricardo Lagunes, a human rights lawyer, and Antonio Díaz, an Indigenous leader, were forcibly disappeared in the state of Colima, Mexico. Their enforced disappearance occurred amid an ongoing dispute over natural resources between the Indigenous community of San Miguel de Aquila, Michoacán, and the Luxembourg-based mining company Ternium (part of the Argentine-Italian Techint Group). They were last seen after attending a community meeting to discuss collective action in response to the human rights impacts of the mining company’s operations.
“Refusing to succumb to despair after their enforced disappearance, the families of Mr Lagunes and Mr Díaz have undertaken a tireless quest for truth and justice over the past three years,” the experts said, noting that the authorities have so far not provided an effective response and that the company concerned has reportedly failed to fully cooperate with ongoing investigations and search activities.
The cases have been registered under the Committee on Enforced Disappearances’ Urgent Actions procedure and benefit from precautionary measures granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, acknowledging the serious, urgent and irreparable risk faced by the two human rights defenders.
“Enforced disappearances have a chilling effect on human rights defenders, including those advocating for land, natural resources and environment issues, as well as Indigenous leaders, and serve to silence critical voices,” the experts said, urging the Government to ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their work in a safe environment, including by strengthening the protection mechanism for human rights defenders.
In the context of resource-extraction projects, business enterprises have often reportedly sown and exacerbated community divisions, inciting violence among locals with opposing views on the projects and the use of land and natural resources. “The Government must ensure that businesses respect human rights across all their activities pursuant to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including when engaging with human rights defenders and affected communities,” they said.
The experts are in touch with the Government of Mexico and the business concerned in this regard.
As mass repression of protests and dissent dramatically intensifies in Iran amidst an almost complete communications shutdown, the Free Narges Coalition and more than 30 undersigned organisations (including FIDH and OMCT in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Humans Rights Defenders) called on 15 January 2026 for urgent and concrete actions to circumvent internet censorship, as well as raising alarm regarding the grave threats to existing and newly-arrested detainees, particularly those jailed for their human rights work, journalism, expression, activism, or peaceful assembly.
Iran is facing one of the most severe periods of repression in its recent history. Protests that began in Tehran’s Grand Bazar on December 28 against the collapse of the national currency grew in size and scope until authorities completely turned off Iran’s internet access to the outside world and began a more severe crackdown on January 8. Shocking images of dead protesters, doctors’ reports of overflowing hospitals and the lethal use of military-grade weapons and live ammunition, and the absence of access for journalists and independent media, have led to desperation of families missing loved ones, as well as grave concerns around the safety of thousands of those injured or detained. Human rights organisations and international media have been able to verify the killing of over 2,500 protesters, including children under the age of 18, and thousands injured, some severely while almost twenty thousand confirmed arrested. With the majority of the killings occurring since 8 January, amid a full-blown digital blackout that has made further verification impossible, current reports estimate the number of killings to be much higher, likely amounting to more than 6,000.
Meanwhile, in official statements, Tehran’s Prosecutor General has described protesters as vandals and threatened they will face moharebe (waging war against God), a charge that is punishable by death under Islamic Penal law. State media have also reported mass arrests of individuals they label as “rioters.”
According to NetBlocks, Iran has now experienced more than 140 hours of near-total internet shutdown since January 8. Such communications blackouts severely restrict access to independent reporting and sharing of essential and life-saving information, and create conditions in which grave human rights violations can be committed with impunity. Prior to the shutdown, human rights defenders and known dissidents both inside and outside of Iran had reported receiving threats, as authorities have attempted to suppress expressions of support for the protests online.
In this context, both recent and long-standing detainees–including human rights defenders, journalists, writers, and artists–face an acute and often overlooked risk. Past patterns in Iran demonstrate that periods of widespread unrest are accompanied by heightened abuses inside detention facilities, where these groups are particularly vulnerable to extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment. Those held in solitary confinement and denied contact with the outside world are at especially high risk.
Among those recently detained are prominent figures from Iran’s civil society, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi, Sepideh Gholian, Alieh Motalebzadeh, Javad Alikordi, Hasti Amiri, Pooran Nazemi, and other human rights defenders and journalists. They were violently arrested following the memorial ceremony for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi on 12 December in Mashhad, and have been held in solitary confinement, their whereabouts and condition unknown, for more than one month. Narges Mohammadi has been denied access to legal counsel and contact with her family, apart from a brief phone call on 14 December when she reported severe ill-treatment, including beatings to her head and neck with batons, as well as threats of further violence. On January 6, before the total internet shutdown, journalist and human rights defender Alieh Motalebzadeh, who has been diagnosed with cancer, was able to call her family. Her daughter reported in a video message that she did not sound well, stating that the detainees are under severe pressure. She was released on bail following deterioration of her health on 12 January. The health condition of Pouran Nazemi is reported to be dire while she remains detained. Narges Mohammadi has been hospitalized for three days after her violent arrest and arbitrary detention since 12 December. Due to the ongoing communications blackout, the families and lawyers have not been able to be in contact with them, including to inquire if their 30 day arbitrary detention order has been extended or not.
We, the undersigned organisations, express our deep concern over the escalation of the killing of protesters, as well as the serious risk of arbitrary legal charges, punishable by the death penalty, against those detained. We stress that the lives and safety of those more vulnerable under detention in Iran must not be forgotten. Human rights defenders, journalists, writers, artists, and those prosecuted due their exercise of freedom of assembly and expression are at the forefront of the peaceful struggle for fundamental human rights. They must be protected and immediately and unconditionally released, and we call for immediate actions from the international community to halt the escalating violations of human rights and humanity.
As reports of mass arrests, killings, and widespread violence continue to escalate, we stand in full solidarity with the people of Iran in their legitimate struggle for fundamental freedoms and democratic rights. We urge the international community to take urgent and concrete actions to prevent further loss of life and to ensure that Iran uphold its international human rights obligations, including through:
Immediate and unconditional release of all those jailed in Iran for their peaceful activism or expression, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi, as well as human rights and women’s rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, lawyers, writers, artists, representatives of religious and ethnic minorities, environmental and labour defenders, students, and all others detained or at risk for exercising their fundamental rights.
Immediate restoration of full and unrestricted access to internet and telecommunications services, and an end to nationwide information blackouts that censor news reporting, facilitate repression, block the transmission of essential and life-saving communications including for medical personnel, and impede documentation of human rights violations.
Independent, impartial, and transparent investigations into killings, torture, lethal use of force by security agents, enforced disappearances, and other serious human rights violations committed in the context of the ongoing protests, with a view to ensuring accountability in line with international law.
As every hour of inaction increases the risk of irreversible loss of human life and gross violations of human rights. The international community must act urgently to protect the detainees, ensure their safety and rights, and prevent further violations under international law.
50 civil society organizations, urge the UN Human Rights Council to urgently convene a special session to address an unprecedented escalation in mass unlawful killings of protesters, amidst an ongoing internet shutdown imposed since 8 January to conceal grave human rights violations and crimes under international law by Iranian authorities. see:
On 5 January 2026 the International Commission of Jurists and many other NGOs issued a joint statement calling on the authorities to immediately terminate the abusive criminal proceedings and drop charges ahead of the 26 Istanbul Heavy Penal Court’s expected final hearing scheduled for 5 to 9 January 2026.
The continued prosecution of the president and 10 executive board members of the Istanbul Bar Association, and the prosecutor’s request for their conviction on terrorism charges are a damning reflection of the troubled state of the rule of law and democratic norms in Turkey.
The prosecutor seeks the criminal conviction of all eleven members of the Bar’s elected leadership – President Prof. İbrahim Özden Kaboğlu, Ahmet Ergin, Bengisu Kadı Çavdar, Ekim Bilen Selimoğlu, Ezgi Şahin Yalvarici, Fırat Epözdemir, Hürrem Sönmez, Mehmedali Barış Beşli, Metin İriz, Rukiye Leyla Süren, and Yelde Koçak Urfa – on the charge of “spreading terrorist propaganda” under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, solely for issuing a public statement on 21 December 2024 concerning the killing of two journalists in northern Syria and the arrest of journalists and lawyers at a related peaceful protest in Istanbul the day before.
The trial prosecutor’s final opinion confirms and deepens the concerns raised by 56 international organisations in the joint statement of January 2025, condemning the initiation of criminal and civil proceedings against the Bar’s leadership, and in the April 2025 joint statement, which deplored the removal of the elected board and the escalating attacks on lawyers across Turkey. A group of the organisations also submitted a joint amicus curiae brief in which they concluded that the proceedings violate Turkey’s obligations under international human rights law and constitute an unjustified interference with the independence of the legal profession.
A clear misuse of criminal law
In his final opinion, the prosecutor alleges that by referring to the two individuals killed in Syria as journalists and by citing international humanitarian law applicable to the protection of civilians and media workers in conflict zones, the Bar leadership “treated as a war crime” an operation carried out by security forces, thereby intentionally legitimising and disseminating the ultimate separatist aims of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The prosecutor further asserts that describing those killed as journalists “encouraged” membership of the PKK and “made its methods appear legitimate”, amounting to “press and media–based terrorist propaganda” under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terrorism Law. These allegations, which claim that a lawful, rights-based statement consciously advanced the objectives of an armed organisation, are wholly unfounded and legally unsustainable.
As emphasised in both joint statements in January and April 2025 and the amicus curiae brief in September 2025, the Istanbul Bar Association has a statutory and ethical duty to speak out on violations of human rights and the rule of law. The prosecutor’s position effectively criminalises the Bar Association’s discharge of this duty protected under both domestic law and international human rights law and standards. The prosecutor’s construal of a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression as a terrorism offence amounts to a misuse of criminal law and judicial harassment.
Violations of international standards and the Bar’s statutory mandate
International and regional human rights standards, including the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, and consistent jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, affirm that lawyers and their associations must be able to engage in public debate on matters of justice and human rights without fear of reprisals.
Criminalising their exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and association contravenes the provisions of these instruments safeguarding the rights and role of lawyers and their professional organisations, as well as Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Articles 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Articles 26, 27 and 33 of the Constitution of Türkiye.
The criminal proceedings strike at the heart of the independence of the legal profession and amount to a misuse of counter-terrorism laws to silence criticism, suppress human rights monitoring, and undermine self-governance of bar associations.
Signatories (in alphabetical order):
Amnesty International
Center of Elaboration and Research on Democracy (CRED)
Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (Le Conseil des barreaux européens, CCBE)
Defense Commission of the Barcelona Bar Association (Spain)
Deutscher Anwaltverein (German Bar Association, Germany)
Eşit Haklar İçin İzleme Derneği (Association for Monitoring Equal Rights, Türkiye)
European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH)
The European Criminal Bar Association (ECBA)
Fédération des Barreaux d’Europe (European Bars Federation, FBE)
Foundation Day of the Endangered Lawyer
Hak İnsiyatifi Derneği (Rights Initiative Association, Türkiye)
Hakikat Adalet Hafıza Merkezi (Truth Justice Memory Center, Türkiye)
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers (UK)
Human Rights Institute of the Brussels Bar (Belgium)
Human Rights Watch
İnsan Hakları Derneği (Human Rights Association, Türkiye)
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL)
International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Kaos GL Derneği (Kaos GL Association, Türkiye)
The Law Society of England and Wales (LSEW, UK)
Lawyers for Lawyers (Netherlands)
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC, Canada)
Lyon Bar Association (France)
National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL, Philippines)
PEN Norway (Norway)
Turkey Litigation Support Project (TLSP, UK)
Türkiye İnsan Hakları Vakfı (Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, Türkiye)
Vereinigung Demokratischer Jurist:innen VDJ (Association of Democratic Jurists, Germany)
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
then on 9 January 2026 Amnesty stated “The decision to acquit the Istanbul Bar Association leadership of these unfounded charges is welcome news. This case was a clear misuse of criminal law and should never have been brought in the first place.” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/
Sarah Bireete was arrested on December 30, 2025, after police and military personnel surrounded her home in Kampala. Shortly before her arrest, she posted on X, “My house is under siege by police and army”. As reported by East and Horn of Africa Election Observation Network (E-HORN) on 2 January 2026
The Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG) Kenya has called for the immediate release of Uganda’s human rights lawyer and civil society leader, Dr Sarah Bireete, warning that her detention ahead of the January elections threatens civic space and undermines democratic processes.
The Uganda Police confirmed her arrest in a brief social media post, stating she would be produced in court “in due course”. Police spokesperson Rachel Kawaala described the detention as part of “ongoing operations” but offered no further details.
“Dr Bireete is widely recognised for her unwavering passion for the protection of civil liberties, her lifelong quest for justice, and her steadfast commitment to democracy, a clarion call that has consistently advanced accountable governance across the region,” the Group said.
Bireete currently serves as Executive Director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), Chairperson of the East Africa Civil Society Forum (EACSOF), and Chairperson of the Horn of Africa Election Observers Network (E-HORN).
PRWG Kenya described these roles as reflective of her integrity, credibility and long-standing contributions to human rights, electoral integrity and democratic governance.
The group urged Ugandan authorities to respect civil liberties, the rule of law and democratic processes.
“Respect for civil liberties, rule of law and democratic processes is fundamental to ensuring free, fair, and transparent elections,” PRWG Kenya said.
The statement also highlighted that Uganda’s constitution, under Article 23, guarantees that anyone arrested must be promptly informed of the reasons for their detention, a step that has not been followed in Dr Bireete’s case.
Bireete’s arrest follows her recent advocacy for Starlink, a satellite internet service operated by SpaceX, as a safeguard against potential internet shutdowns during the elections.
In a post dated December 23, 2025, she wrote, “Dear Ugandans, are you thinking of ways to navigate internet shutdown during elections? Starlink got you covered.”
As the country approaches general elections on 15 January 2026, UN experts* today warned that the pervasive climate of fear in Uganda, marked by allegations of enforced disappearance, the use of disproportionate force against political opposition supporters, and the intensified suppression of civil society and independent media, is not conducive to peaceful elections.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 