The authorities responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a new health emergency decree-law, which restricted freedoms of movement, expression and assembly, and used it to prosecute people for criticizing the government’s handling of the crisis or for breaking the emergency measures. Sahrawi human...

At least four journalists and one academic have been denied the right to read and write in Moroccan prisons, Amnesty International said today, as the world observes World Press Freedom Day. According to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the...

Reacting to the vast numbers of people worldwide expected to mark Earth Day on 22 April, Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability programme said: “Hundreds of millions of people around the world are expected to mark Earth...

Responding to the opening today of the trial of journalist Hanane Bakour who faces up to three years in prison and a fine after being accused of “publishing fake news by using electronic means that harm private life” for a Facebook post where she criticized the holding of a local...

Severe violations of human rights continue unabated in both Algeria and Morocco, while many laws in each country are far from aligned with international standards, Amnesty International said today, following the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) of each country’s human...

Saudi Arabian citizen Hassan Al Rabea, who was detained at Marrakesh airport in Morocco on his way to Türkiye on 14 January 2023, must not be returned to Saudi Arabia where he would be at real risk of torture and other human rights violations, Amnesty International said today. Al Rabea was arrested...

Sifting through Facebook, Huwaida stumbled upon the footage she was dreading. But it was only when further photos of her uncle Anwar’s lifeless body emerged & a human rights organization on the ground confirmed it, that she knew for sure. Anwar was dead. Anwar from Sudan, was just one of...

Families of missing people add voices to a new international campaign for justice The abject failure of Spanish and Moroccan authorities to provide truth and ensure justice for at least 37 sub-Saharan African people killed and 77 others still missing following the deadly events that took place on...

Nineteen Sahrawi activists languish in prison years after Moroccan courts convicted them in unfair proceedings, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The convictions of the so-called Gdeim Izik group stemmed from their purported role in lethal violence that erupted on November 8,...

Ahead of tomorrow’s hearing by a court in Rabat on the case of human rights defender Rida Benotmane, who is being prosecuted for criticising the authorities on YouTube and Facebook, Amna Guellali, Deputy director for Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International said: “The only...

The death toll continues to rise. At least 23 people died last Friday trying to reach the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco. Some organisations working on the ground have put the death toll at 37. Their bodies await burial in hastily dug graves. But as far as we know, none of them have been...

The Moroccan authorities must urgently investigate allegations that police and security forces brutally assaulted five Sahrawi women activists, Amnesty International said today. The organization has investigated the circumstances around the attacks, which took place during five separate incidents...

Moroccan authorities have stepped up their harassment of human rights defenders and activists in the past two months, with at least four facing criminal investigations and prosecutions over social media posts critical of the authorities, Amnesty International said today. Human rights defender Saida...