© Charlotte Giang Beuret for ISHR. All rights reserved.
On 9 September the Secretary-General released his annual report on reprisals, in which he included three of four cases ISHR has been actively campaigning on, namely the cases of Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj (India) and Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja (Bahrain).
In his report, the Secretary-General includes follow up information on Parvez, whose case has been documented since 2018, Mehraj, whose case has been documented since 2023, and Al-Khawaja’s case, which has been documented in the report since 2021, and prior to that in 2011 and 2012.
While we welcome the inclusion of these cases, ISHR finds it unacceptable that some others are not. This includes cases such as Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese blogger, journalist, and democracy activist, whose case was included in the 2022 report of the Secretary-General on allegations of long-term arbitrary detention and lengthy sentencing for sharing reports on the human rights situation in the country with the UN and other international actors. The Secretary-General should continue to explicitly include cases in the follow-up section of his report until those cases are resolved. Dropping a case from the report while the victim languishes in detention falls far short of the protection victims of reprisals deserve.
We call on States to publicly raise these four cases and hold their peers accountable. Khurram, Irfan, Abdulhadi and Trang were arbitrarily detained because they shared or sought to share information with the United Nations. These are clear cases of reprisals which need our attention, and we must continue to make these cases visible. Together we can #EndReprisals!
Imagine determined individuals speaking up for what’s right for their communities, and then facing intimidation, threats and even imprisonment when they engage with the United Nations. This is not acceptable. Help us safeguard their voices and freedom. Join our campaign to #EndReprisals!
Take action
ISHR joins 22 human rights organisations in strongly condemning the Hong Kong government’s escalating repression of activists in exile and the targeting of relatives of prominent activist Anna Kwok.
At the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, held in Banjul (The Gambia) from 2 May to 22 May, ISHR delivered an oral statement calling for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the continuation of the process toward a human rights defenders protection law in Zambia, reparations for Africans and people of African descent, and a binding treaty on environmental rights in Africa.
On 3 May 2025, on the sidelines of the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ISHR co-sponsored a side event on the situation of human rights defenders in the Sahel, organised by the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organisation against Torture.
