© Charlotte Giang Beuret for ISHR
The UN Secretary-General published his annual report on reprisals, expressing concerns over the growing 'scale and sophistication' of 'targeted repression across borders' against human rights defenders. These acts are directly aimed at individuals and organisations engaging with the United Nations, and in some cases, their family members and colleagues.
ISHR welcomes the inclusion in the report of the case of Basma Mostafa, a woman human rights defender and journalist from Egypt who is subject to targeted transnational repression (TNR). Basma is a 2024 alumna of ISHR’s Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP) and works at the European level to document and uncover TNR networks in a range of countries.
'What I face is not an isolated story – it is part of a broader pattern of reprisals and transnational repression targeting human rights defenders in exile around the world. The Secretary-General has made it clear: preventing and addressing reprisals is central to the UN’s mandate, and States bear the primary responsibility to ensure accountability. Member States must take this call seriously.'Basma Mostafa, Egyptian human rights defender and journalist
In its recent brief on the issue, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) identified four areas of recommendations to tackle TNR: awareness and training; holistic protection for at-risk individuals’ accountability and legal recourse; and digital security and technological measures.
ISHR calls on OHCHR to provide further detailed guidance on these four areas of recommendations, including in the context of addressing cases of reprisals occurring transnationally. ISHR further calls on States to refrain from committing, enabling or condoning acts of TNR, and taking steps, including in coordination with others, to take preventive measures, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide adequate protection and redress to victims. The Human Rights Council and its mechanisms should develop international standards to prevent and address TNR, considering its interlinkage with patterns of intimidation and reprisals.
Notably, thirty-two States are mentioned in the report as allegedly perpetrating reprisals, with almost a third being members of the Human Rights Council. While ISHR appreciates the inclusion of important new trends, such as transnational repression, we regret the lack of follow-up on several unresolved cases and the failure to acknowledge acts of reprisals against UN experts.
It is untenable for the UN to ignore reprisals against individuals who face reprisals for carrying out their UN mandates.
ISHR also regrets that the Secretary-General has not followed up on several unresolved cases. To name but just a few examples: Human rights defender Kadar Abdi Ibrahim from Djibouti remains banned from travel since participating in the country’s Universal Periodic Review in Geneva in 2018. Mohamed El-Baqer, a lawyer and human rights defender from Egypt may have been released, but he is not fully free. He submitted information to the UN, was arbitrarily detained and is now on a terrorist list, unable to leave his country. Anexa Alfred Cunningham is a UN expert on Indigenous Peoples’ rights who remains unable to return to her homeland in Nicaragua after coming to Geneva to fulfil her mandate.
Finally, ISHR also regrets that several cases it submitted to the Secretary-General’s report were not included. These include cases where activists had been severely intimidated by State and actors under their effective control, including Government-organised non-governmental organisations (GONGOs), and cases where individuals were targeted through intentional intimidation and reprisals against their family members in their home countries.
'The exclusion of their cases from the report is a non-acknowledgment of their situations, fails to capture the evolving modes of operation of perpetrators of reprisals, and undermines the effectiveness and credibility of the Secretary-General's mandate on the issue of reprisals.'Madeleine Sinclair, New York Office Director and Legal Counsel at ISHR
We are campaigning for Loujain, Anexa, Kadar and Mohamed, currently facing travel bans because of their engagement with the UN. You can take action for them, asking permanent missions to raise their cases at the Human Rights Council and at the General Assembly.
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In response to the annual call for inputs from the UN Secretary-General, ISHR has submitted 120 cases of intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders engaging with the UN from 29 countries.
Read our submission
On 3 October 2025, Ireland and Uruguay delivered a cross-regional statement on reprisals on behalf of 70 States and the European Union during a General Debate at the Third Committee of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
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