Urgent Action good news: Police return defender's seized vehicles in Nicaragua
On 10 December Nicaraguan police returned two vehicles that they had taken possession of from human rights defender Francisca Ramírez 10 days before.
Urgent Action update: Detained journalists need urgent medical care in Yemen
Journalist Abdelkhaleq Amran is in urgent need of medical attention after being tortured or otherwise ill-treated, according to his family. Nine other journalists arbitrarily detained with him also require medical attention.
Urgent Action update: Allow jailed mother visits from her daughter in Iran
Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials have pressured British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, a prisoner of conscience, to choose between moving her two-year-old daughter into prison with her for up to three days a week or sign a document to say that she does not want the “right to be with her young daughter”.
Urgent Action update: Human rights defender's trial postponed in Israel/OPT
A hearing on 6 December should have been the last opportunity for the Israeli military prosecution to produce the witnesses in the case against Palestinian lawyer – and former prisoner of conscience – Anas Barghouti.
Urgent Action: Fate of two detained UNMISS staff unknown in South Sudan
Anthony Nyero and James Lual, staff members of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), may have been subjected to enforced disappearance by South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS).
Urgent Action update: Teacher union activist must be released in Iran
Iranian teacher union activist Esmail Abdi, the Secretary General of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association (ITTA), was arrested on 9 November and taken to Tehran’s Evin Prison to begin serving a six-year prison sentence.
Urgent Action update: Jail sentence against opposition leader upheld in Bahrain
On 12 December the Appeal Court in Bahrain issued its verdict against opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman and sentenced him again to nine years in prison after a retrial.
Urgent Action update: Anti-death penalty activist violently arrested in Iran
Iranian human rights defender and anti-death penalty campaigner Atena Daemi was violently arrested on 26 November and taken to Evin Prison to begin serving a seven-year prison sentence.
UA update: Human rights defender faces 11 years in prison in Saudi Arabia
On 1 December, human rights defender Issa al-Hamid’s prison sentence was increased by two years on appeal, bringing his total prison sentence to 11 years. If detained he will be a prisoner of conscience.
UA update: End Administrative detention of circus performer in Israel/OPT
On 11 December the Israeli military renewed the administrative detention of Palestinian circus performer Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha for another six months.