Front Line Defenders

📍HONDURAS

🕊️A few days ahead of the 10th anniversary of Indigenous defender Berta Cáceres' murder, Front Line Defenders commemorates and keeps her memory, strength and legacy alive.

#BertaLives #JusticeForBerta

Poster for UN HRC side event, "No surrender on human rights: Defenders hold the line"

🗓️ Join us in Geneva next week for a HRC side event with UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, and other human rights defenders, about her last report regarding the trends HRDs are experiencing globally. This will be Mary's last event before her mandate ends.

📍TÜRKİYE

🚨WHRD Defne Güzel, Chair of 17 Mayıs Association, faces up to 3 years in prison under the Law on Associations over publications on intersex experiences and LGBTQI+ rights.

FLD calls on Turkish authorities to end the judicial harassment of LGBTQI+ defenders.

🔗 zurl.co/Txbm1

📍THAILAND

🚨Four pro-democracy defenders were sentenced under Thailand’s lèse-majesté law for remarks made at a peaceful gathering in 2020.

FLD and other civil society organizations call for their sentences to be immediately overturned.

🔗zurl.co/uj09o

📍GREECE

🚨 Greek authorities must stop targeting migrant rights defenders, including issuing of a European Arrest Warrant for Tommy Olsen and publicly attacking lawyer Dimitrios Choulis.

Greek authorities must ensure migrant rights defenders can work without fear of reprisals.

🔗zurl.co/zoBh7

📍TUNISIA

🚨On 23 Feb 2026, HRD Ahmed Souab was released by the Tunis Court of Appeal after more than 300 days in detention linked to his human rights work.


However, his conviction remains on record. FLD calls on authorities to end the judicial harassment of Tunisian HRDs.
🔗 zurl.co/UtewC

📍TÜRKİYE

🚨 HRD Enes Hocaogullari was acquitted of all charges over a speech he delivered at a Council of Europe conference in March 2025. FLD welcome this and calls on the Turkish authorities to ensure HRDs can work without fear of judicial harassment or arbitrary arrest.

🔗zurl.co/qlsm2

📍Mexico

🕯️Front Line Defenders joined dozens of people in Mexico City on Saturday for an evening dedicated to HRDs who have been killed or subjected to enforced disappearances in Mexico, the second deadliest country in 2024 for HRDs, according to our Global Analysis.

#DefendingIsMyRight

📍 INDIA

📍EGYPT

🚨On 15 February 2026, WHRD Aida Seif El-Dawla was charged with “spreading false news” , and later released on heavy bail, in a case linked to her human rights work documenting torture. Egyptian authorities must drop all charges and end the targeting of HRDs.

🔗zurl.co/fwme8

📍Peru

🚨Front Line Defenders call on the Peruvian authorities to drop the charges against Asháninka human rights defender Fabián Antúnez and guarantee due process, the right to defence and the presumption of innocence.

🔗Read more: zurl.co/VYKdc

📍IRAN

🚨The Free Narges Coalition urgently calls on Iranian authorities to release Nobel laureate WHRD Narges Mohammadi. Last week, following a violent arrest in December, she received additional prison sentences, internal exile, and a travel ban on politically motivated charges.

🔗 zurl.co/XaGZu

🚨Today, 12 February, the request for release of HRD Ahmed Souab was denied and the hearing was postponed to the 23 February. The health condition of the Ahmed remains gravely concerning. We urge authorities to release Ahmed and drop all charges against him.

📍TUNISIA


Tomorrow, unjustly detained HRD Ahmed Souab is set to appear before the Court of Appeal.

FLD reiterates grave concern over his deteriorating health and urge Tunisian authorities to release him and drop all charges against him.

🔗Read more:zurl.co/yMk34

📍Colombia

Since late December 2025, the Corporación Regional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (CREDHOS) has reported a wave of threats targeting its members, particularly its president, HRD Iván Madero.

✊ We call on the Colombian authorities to act urgently.

🔗 Read more: zurl.co/LQ1YC

📣Front Line Defenders is recruiting a Global Security Lead.

The Global Security Lead will provide ongoing management and oversight of the safety and security of FLD operations, personnel, as well as premises and events.

More information and how to apply can be found here⬇️
zurl.co/FO5UI

📍Honduras

🚨 The murder of Berta Cáceres was not an isolated crime. It was the result of a power structure in which business interests, state security forces and international financing converged to impose the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project.
📄 Read more and find the report: zurl.co/J5d1h

📍Iran

🚨 Iran’s digital blackout for the last three weeks has made it impossible to document and report on human rights violations, including mass killings and arrests. Meanwhile, human rights defenders are being mass arrested.
🔗Read more: www.frontlinedefenders.org/e...

📍 PAKISTAN

Joint Statement: We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and subsequent conviction of Pakistani human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha, and call for their immediate release and measures to ensure the conviction is set aside.
Read more: zurl.co/gMKg6

Supreme Court to review the unlawful sentencing of Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy

📍 Kyrgyzstan

The Supreme Court will review a motion in the case WHRD Makhabat Tazhibek kyzy, citing an Opinion adopted by the UN WG on Arbitrary Detention calling for her release from arbitrary detention. We urge the Court to implement the Opinion and release Makhabat.

Read more: zurl.co/LN3NB

FLD is proud to be a partner of Lighthouse, the Global Protection Fund, launching today - a multi-donor fund committed to moving resources to HRDs who need it most - delivered through organisations who already support HRDs critical work.

Check out the website here: zurl.co/CAfoj?utm_source=blu...

Front Line Defenders is recruiting for a Digital Protection Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. See more details here: zurl.co/2V0sZ

The Sakharov Fellowship provides:

🌍Insight into EU & international human rights mechanisms
💬 Advocacy and communication training
🛠️ Tools for security and safety, resilience, disinformation and documentation
🤝 Meeting with high-level EU stakeholders


And more. Apply here: zurl.co/wS9WD

📍Western Sahara

Our 2025 MENA FLD Award laureate, Mhamed Hali, was interviewed by El País - Mhamed Hali, lawyer and human rights defender in Western Sahara: ‘Any proposed solution to the conflict that is not supported by the Sahrawi people is illegitimate.’

Read it [in Spanish]:
🔗 zurl.co/hufIW

📍Egypt

🚨Prominent Egyptian human rights defender, journalist, poet and writer, Ahmed Douma was arrested on 20 January without a warrant from his home in Cairo, interrogated for more than 12 hours and later released on bail.

🔗Read more: zurl.co/UuRlN

📍Iran

In light of today's Special Session of the Human Rights Council to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Narges Foundation, PEN America, Reporters sans Frontières and Front Line Defenders call for urgent international action and accountability.

📍Pakistan

🚨Front Line Defenders is extremely concerned for the safety of human rights defenders and lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha. They were arbitrarily arrested today without a warrant, and despite a court order granting them temporary relief from arrest.
🔗Read more: zurl.co/ESUqK

Today, the United Nations Human Rights Council is holding a special session to address the worsening human rights situation in Iran. At the session, Front Line Defenders shared the dire situation for Iranian HRDs and called for various measures to support them.

Watch here: zurl.co/bku7W

Last day to apply or nominate for the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk 2026!

zurl.co/5wTYP

📍 CHINA

On 18 January, WHRD Yang Li was on her way to seek urgent medical treatment when she was intercepted by police and detained.

We condemn the continued denial of medical care and restrictions on Yang Li's freedom of movement.

Read more: zurl.co/Yjo2z