The 2012 Front Line Defenders Annual Report highlights the fact that while international media and public attention focused on the dramatic events unfolding across the Middle East, elsewhere repressive governments continued to respond to any challenge to their...

On 24 January 2012 Saudi human rights rights defender Sheikh Suliman Ibrahim Al-Reshoudi lodged an appeal before the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in Riyadh, along with other advocates of reform in Saudi Arabia, against the sentences handed down against them in...

On 26 January 2012, Front Line Defenders was informed that the request by human rights defender Mr Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, to have the next session of the court hearing against him heard in Bangkok was rejected by the court.

On 21 January 2012, Messrs Lehbous Ould Omar, Ely Ould Ravaa, Ell Mehdy Ould Lemrabott and Abdallahy Abou Diop, human rights defenders and members of l'Initiative de résurgence du mouvement abolitionniste en Mauritanie (IRA), were released from detention in Aioun....

Ms Sapiyat Magomedova was informed by reliable sources that further investigations into the case which she initiated against two police officers, Batirbi Magdiev and Nariman Mollaev, have been put on hold.

Front Line Defenders welcomes the news of the release of human rights defender and member of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) Ms Ivonne Malleza, her husband Ignacio Martinez, and activist Ms Isabel Alvarez on 19 January 2012.

All three had been arrested...