On 24 November 2023, the Shandong Provincial High Court announced its decision to uphold the first-instance verdict and sentence against human rights defender Ding Jiaxi. In April 2023, the Linshu County Court in Shandong province found Ding Jiaxi guilty of “subversion of State power” and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
On 15 September 2019, Wang Jing was released from a prison in Changchun, Jilin province, after serving her full sentence.
On 24 April 2016 human rights defender Ms Wang Jing was sentenced to four years and ten months in prison by a court in Jilin City on charges of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble”.
On 7 March 2021, during coordinated operations led by the police and military in the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces surrounding Metro Manila, five human rights defenders were among those killed and four human rights defenders were arrested. Human rights defenders Emanuel Asucion, Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee Coros Bacasno, Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista were among those killed, whilst human rights defenders Nimfa Lanzanas, Esteban Mendoza, Eugene Eugenio and Elizabeth Camoral were arrested during the raids.
On 7 March 2021, during coordinated operations led by the police and military in the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces surrounding Metro Manila, five human rights defenders were among those killed and four human rights defenders were arrested. Human rights defenders Emanuel Asucion, Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee Coros Bacasno, Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista were among those killed, whilst human rights defenders Nimfa Lanzanas, Esteban Mendoza, Eugene Eugenio and Elizabeth Camoral were arrested during the raids.
On 7 March 2021, during coordinated operations led by the police and military in the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces surrounding Metro Manila, five human rights defenders were among those killed and four human rights defenders were arrested. Human rights defenders Emanuel Asucion, Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee Coros Bacasno, Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista were among those killed, whilst human rights defenders Nimfa Lanzanas, Esteban Mendoza, Eugene Eugenio and Elizabeth Camoral were arrested during the raids.
On 7 March 2021, during coordinated operations led by the police and military in the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces surrounding Metro Manila, five human rights defenders were among those killed and four human rights defenders were arrested. Human rights defenders Emanuel Asucion, Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee Coros Bacasno, Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista were among those killed, whilst human rights defenders Nimfa Lanzanas, Esteban Mendoza, Eugene Eugenio and Elizabeth Camoral were arrested during the raids.
On 17 November 2020, woman human rights defender Marina Kostylianchenko was sentenced to a further 15 days in detention on the grounds of “violating the procedure for holding a protest”. The woman human rights defender will therefore spend a total of one month in detention following her administrative arrest on 2 November 2020.
On 10 October 2020, human rights defender and journalist at Daaarb newspaper Khaled Elbalshy was informed that his brother, Kamal Elbalshy, had been placed under preventive detention. According to a board member of Egypt’s Press Syndicate, a senior member of the Egyptian Government has claimed that there is no evidence against Kamal Elbalshy, and he is being targeted because he is the brother of the prominent human rights defender.
On 18 May 2021, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court denied bail to seven human rights defenders, five of whom are members of Khmer Thavrak and two others who are members of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association. All seven defenders were arrested between August and September 2020, some for planning to participate and others for participating in peaceful demonstrations seeking the release of several other imprisoned human rights defenders. Those arrested include Chhoeun Daravy, Hun Vannak, Koet Saray, Tha Lavy, Eng Malai, Muong Sopheak and Mean Prommony.
On 22 February 2021, the Bombay High Court granted human rights defender Varavara Rao conditional bail on medical grounds. The defender has been in jail since his arrest on 28 August 2018 for his alleged role in the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon on 31 December 2017.
On 14 January 2021, Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức's family was informed by a reliable source that the human rights defender had spent a few days on intravenous drips after his health had severely deteriorated.
Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức’s health has severely deteriorated after the human rights defender has spent over a week on hunger strike.
On 5 January 2021, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced journalists and human rights defenders Le Huu Minh Tuan and Nguyen Tuong Thuy to eleven years in prison. A third journalist, Pham Chi Dung was sentenced to fifteen years. The human rights defenders were charged with making and disseminating propaganda against the state.
On 12 June 2020, human rights defender and journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan was arrested by the Security Bureau of Investigation in Ho Chi Minh City. He is currently detained in Chi Hoa prison.
On 22 May 2018, fifteen pro-democracy human rights defenders, including Anon Nampa, Rangsiman Rome, Sirawith Seritiwat, Chonticha Jaengrew and Piyarat Chongthep, were arrested and charged with sedition, with violating the junta’s ban on political gatherings of five people or more, and under the Road Traffic Act for participating in peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in Bangkok.
On 11 December 2022, a bail order of 6 billion IRR was issued for a new case opened against Mustafa Nili following his arrest in November 2022. The first court session was adjourned on 9 January 2023 at 28 Branch of Tehran Revolutionary Court when the human rights defender refused to be present in protest against the violation of due processes for the detainees of the recent protests taking place in Iran sparked by the killing of Mahsa Amini. Therefore, the new charges against the defender are yet to be known.
On 11 May 2021, family members of jailed human rights defender Hany Babu appealed to Indian authorities to provide him with immediate access to medical treatment. In early May 2021, the human rights defender developed a severe eye infection, which has already impaired his vision in his left eye, and has now spread to his cheek, ear and forehead. The human rights defender is in extreme pain, and continues to be denied access to basic facilities including clean water and treatment. Family members fear that the infection, given the rate it has already spread, may impact his vital organs.
On 17 June 2021, Narges Mohammadi, Mustafa Nili and two other human rights defenders were stopped, physically assaulted, detained for a few hours and had their devices confiscated temporarily by intelligence agents in Shazand, Markazi province in central Iran. The group of human rights defenders were denied entrance to Arkak city, in order to visit the family of a human rights defender who is detained in Arak prison.
On 10 June 2021, unknown men together with police officers raided a women's shelter for gender-based violence survivors in Makhachkala in order to forcibly return Сhechen woman Khalimat Taramova, who had been staying at the shelter, to her family in the Chechen Republic. Women human rights defenders Svetlana Anokhina and Maysarat Kilyaskhanova, who were present at the time of the raid, were reportedly beaten and detained together with 3 other women. The women were subsequently released and Khalimat Taramova was forcibly returned to her family in the Chechen Republic.
On 30 December 2019, Amaya Coppens was released along with 90 other prisoners.
On 14 November 2019, Amaya Coppens was arrested along with 15 other human rights defenders as they were handing out water to the mothers of political prisoners at the San Miguel Arcángel Church in Masaya, Nicaragua.
On 4 March 2017, human rights defender Li Xiaoling was illegally taken into custody by a force of over thirty police and placed under forced residential surveillance in the 2000 Year’s Hotel in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. Li Xiaoling had fled to her daughter’s home in the city of Zhongshan, after escaping an earlier surveillance detention initiated on 27 February 2017. Soon after reaching her daughter’s house, local police arrived with a force of thirty or more officers to take Li Xiaoling back to the 2000 Year’s Hotel.
On 20 January 2017, Israeli occupation forces arrested human rights defenders Ms Lema Nazeeh and Mr Mohammed Khatib – along with four other peaceful protesters - near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Israeli forces then went on to ill-treat Lema Nazeeh throughout her four days in detention at Al-Maskubiyyah prison in Jerusalem. On 23 January 2017, Israeli occupation forces also arrested human rights defender Mr Abdallah Abu Rahma as he attended the court hearing of the two aforementioned defenders.
On 18 August 2022, Sri Lankan police used disproportionate force against peaceful protesters in Colombo including tear gas, water cannons and batons. 20 protesters, including human rights defender Chinthaka Rajapaksa and student leader and education rights defender Wasantha Mudalige were arrested from the protest. 16 of those arrested, were released on bail by the Magistrates Court the following day (19 August). Chinthaka Rajapakse was denied bail and remanded until 26 August.
On 29 June 2019, Carola Rackete was arrested for docking in the port of Lampedusa, Sicily, to disembark 42 migrants who had been rescued two weeks earlier off the Libyan coast, defying a ban by the Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini. The human rights defender was initially put under house arrest, on charges of breaking an Italian naval blockade (under the recently approved decree known as Salvini bis) and for accidentally ramming a police boat that was trying to block her manoeuvrers.
On 28 November 2017, the Yueyang Intermediate Court in China’s Hunan Province declared Taiwanese human rights defender Lee Ming-che (李明哲) guilty on charges of “subverting state power”. He was sentenced to five years’ incarceration, with a two-year deprivation of political rights in China. During the verdict hearing, he waived his right of appeal. Chinese national Peng Yuhua (彭宇华), tried alongside the human rights defender, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on the same charges.
On 17 November 2021, human rights defender Liu Feiyue completed his five-year sentence and was released from prison in Hubei province. In addition to the completed prison term, he now faces three years of "deprivation of political rights," which was included in his original sentence, and which in practice often entails on-going surveillance and restrictions on freedom of movement and freedom of expression.
On 12 July 2019, Liu Feiyue's family received the appellate decision from the Hubei Provincial High Court rejecting his appeal and upholding the original sentence.
