MORE THAN 130 UN EXPERTS PROVIDE A COMMON DEFINITION OF TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION AND CALL FOR COORDINATED INTERNATIONAL ACTION
The Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF) welcomes the joint statement issued by more than 130 United Nations human rights experts, calling on States, international organisations—including the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)—and businesses, particularly technology companies, to take decisive action to prevent and combat transnational repression, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide protection and assistance to victims.
The statement was signed by a wide range of UN Special Rapporteurs, members of working groups, and UN treaty bodies. Its signatories include the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, counterterrorism and human rights, freedom of opinion and expression, privacy, torture, and extrajudicial executions; members of the Working Groups on Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; and several UN treaty bodies.
EHRF considers the statement a significant development in the international human rights system’s response to transnational repression. Such practices are no longer being treated as isolated incidents affecting particular individuals or countries, but as a growing and interconnected pattern of violations that threatens human rights, the rule of law, civic space, refugee protection, independent journalism, and media freedom. Transnational repression also undermines the ability of human rights defenders and civil society organisations to engage safely with international human rights mechanisms.
A common UN definition of transnational repression
The statement is particularly significant because it provides a clear UN definition of transnational repression as “acts conducted or directed by a State, or its proxy, to deter, silence or punish dissent, criticism or human rights advocacy towards it, expressed from outside its territory.”
The endorsement of this definition by more than 130 experts representing different parts of the UN human rights system is an important step towards establishing a common UN understanding of the phenomenon. The definition focuses on the responsible actor, the cross-border nature of the conduct, and its repressive purpose, rather than limiting transnational repression to a closed list of violations.
It therefore captures the evolving nature of the phenomenon, including its physical, digital, legal, and administrative dimensions, as well as the targeting of relatives and associates who remain in the country of origin as a means of exerting pressure on human rights defenders and political opponents living abroad.
The statement recognises that transnational repression may include extrajudicial killings, torture, abduction and enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, deportation and forced return, travel bans, deprivation of nationality, and the misuse of international law-enforcement mechanisms, including INTERPOL Red Notices. It may also involve intimidation and retaliation against family members, colleagues, and associates.
The experts further highlight the increasingly digital nature of transnational repression, including the use of social media platforms, spyware and malware, surveillance, hacking, smear campaigns, and online harassment, warning that these violations may be further amplified through artificial intelligence tools.
An evolving UN response
The joint statement forms part of a rapidly developing UN response to transnational repression. This has included the publication of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ first dedicated brief on transnational repression in June 2025 and the increasing consideration of the issue in Human Rights Council reports and resolutions.
A particularly important development is the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s report on “arbitrary detention and transnational repression”, A/HRC/63/33, which was submitted to the sixty-third session of the Human Rights Council and discussed before the Council on 15 September 2026.
The report directly examines the relationship between transnational repression and the arbitrary deprivation of liberty. It explains how States may use extradition requests, international criminal and police cooperation, prosecutions and trials in absentia, immigration and deportation procedures, deprivation of nationality, and the criminalisation of peaceful activities abroad to reach and detain critics and human rights defenders outside their borders.
The Working Group stressed that cooperation between States in criminal matters must be subject to genuine judicial oversight, public hearings, and full procedural guarantees. It also affirmed that prosecutions in absentia without the possibility of an in-person retrial, the deprivation of nationality of individuals living abroad, and the criminalisation of peaceful activities conducted outside a State’s territory cannot lawfully form the basis for a deprivation of liberty.
These findings are particularly relevant to the Egyptian context, in which EHRF has documented the use of prosecutions and trials in absentia, extradition requests, regional security cooperation mechanisms, terrorism designations, and the denial of consular documentation to target political opponents and human rights defenders abroad.
These developments have also coincided with growing attention to reprisals against individuals and organisations cooperating with the United Nations. The UN Secretary-General’s latest report on intimidation and reprisalsdocumented cases involving 32 States. Thirteen of those States were cited in connection with acts of transnational repression affecting at least 43 individuals and four organisations.
Together with the Human Rights Council’s dedicated dialogue on transnational repression and arbitrary detention, these developments confirm that transnational repression is no longer a marginal issue. It represents a direct challenge to the integrity of the UN human rights system and its ability to hear from victims and civil society without exposing them or their families to surveillance, intimidation, or retaliation.
EHRF’s 2024 report: Early documentation of the Egyptian context
These UN developments are particularly significant for EHRF, which has been among the organisations documenting the phenomenon in the Egyptian context.
In September 2024, EHRF, in partnership with the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, published a joint report on the targeting of Egyptian human rights defenders in the diaspora. The report documented the Egyptian authorities’ use of a wide range of methods to pursue human rights defenders and political opponents abroad.
The patterns documented in the report included the denial of passports, consular services, and civil documentation; digital threats and surveillance; politically motivated prosecutions and trials in absentia; the misuse of international security and law-enforcement cooperation mechanisms; and pressure against the relatives of human rights defenders and political opponents remaining in Egypt.
The report, together with documentation and advocacy undertaken by international and regional human rights organisations, contributed to growing recognition of transnational repression as a distinct and interconnected pattern of violations rather than a collection of isolated incidents.
The definition endorsed by the UN experts reflects much of what EHRF has documented since 2024: transnational repression is not limited to physical attacks, abductions, or forced transfers. It includes any act conducted or directed by a State or its proxy to deter, silence, or punish dissent, criticism, or human rights advocacy expressed from outside its territory.
Since publishing its first report, EHRF has continued to expand its documentation and analysis. In February 2026, it launched its second annual report, “Wherever They Go: Transnational Repression and the Targeting of Egyptians Abroad”, alongside a specialised database that is continuously updated.
The EHRF database now contains 119 verified cases involving Egyptians targeted across at least 17 countries and locations.
The database demonstrates that the denial of consular and civil documents, reprisals against relatives, politically motivated prosecutions and trials in absentia, smear campaigns, digital threats, and attempted extraditions or forced returns are not separate administrative or security measures. They constitute interconnected elements of a broader policy designed to control Egyptians in exile, restrict their movement, isolate them from their families, and deter them from public engagement and cooperation with international human rights mechanisms.
Positive developments demonstrate the impact of sustained advocacy
These institutional developments also coincide with positive indications that the resilience of victims and sustained international human rights advocacy can contribute to concrete results.
These developments include the release of Egyptian-Turkish poet and writer Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who has now safely returned to Türkiye and reunited with his family. His release followed more than a year and a half of detention after he was arrested in Lebanon on 28 December 2024, transferred to the United Arab Emirates on 8 January 2025, and subsequently detained and held incommunicado for prolonged periods.
EHRF, together with dozens of human rights organisations, had closely followed Abdulrahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi’s case and called for his immediate and unconditional release and safe return to Türkiye. EHRF therefore welcomes his arrival in Türkiye and reunification with his family as a significant and long-awaited positive outcome.
EHRF also welcomes the Bulgarian authorities’ release of Saudi human rights defender Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi on 21 August 2026, after nearly five years of administrative detention without a criminal conviction.
Al-Qaradawi’s release and safe return to Türkiye, together with Al-Khalidi’s release, are positive developments demonstrating the importance of the resilience of victims and their families, legal action, human rights advocacy, and sustained international pressure.
However, the release of individuals does not erase the violations they suffered or absolve the responsible authorities of accountability. Al-Khalidi must also be protected from forcible return to Saudi Arabia and provided with a fair and durable resolution of his legal status, as his international protection proceedings remain ongoing.
The two cases demonstrate that addressing transnational repression cannot end with an individual’s release. It must also include effective remedies and reparation for the violations suffered, guarantees against return to danger, accountability for those responsible, and reforms to the national and international systems that enabled their detention, transfer, or cross-border targeting.
A shared responsibility for States, international organisations, and businesses
EHRF stresses that responsibility for confronting transnational repression does not rest solely with perpetrating States. Host countries have an obligation to protect individuals within their jurisdictions, investigate threats, surveillance, and attacks targeting them, and prevent their extradition or return to countries where they face a real risk of enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention, or other serious human rights violations.
States must also consider a requesting country’s record of transnational repression when assessing extradition requests, INTERPOL Red Notices and Diffusions, security cooperation, and diplomatic assurances.
Technology companies also have a responsibility to conduct meaningful human rights due diligence, protect users’ personal data, and prevent their services and platforms from being used for unlawful surveillance, hacking, impersonation, defamation, incitement, doxing, or coordinated reporting campaigns intended to silence individuals in exile.
EHRF stated:
“The joint statement and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s report mark an important turning point in the international recognition of transnational repression as an interconnected system of violations rather than a collection of isolated incidents. The establishment of a common UN definition provides an important foundation for developing legislation, policies, and protection and accountability mechanisms. However, this progress will remain limited unless the experts’ recommendations are translated into practical measures capable of protecting human rights defenders, journalists, political opponents, and their families, and holding States and other actors accountable for targeting them across borders.”
The Egyptian Human Rights Forum calls on States and relevant international actors to:
- Adopt and incorporate the definition set out in the UN experts’ joint statement into national legislation, policies, and protection frameworks, enabling authorities to identify, investigate, and ensure accountability for all forms of transnational repression.
- Implement the recommendations of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and ensure that all extradition requests and forms of international criminal and police cooperation are subject to genuine judicial oversight, public hearings, and full due process guarantees.
- Refuse to treat trials in absentia that do not guarantee an in-person retrial, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, or the criminalisation of peaceful activities conducted abroad as lawful grounds for arrest, detention, extradition, or deportation.
- Establish specialised focal points and inter-agency coordination mechanisms to receive reports securely, investigate violations, identify patterns, and protect individuals at risk.
- Ensure that security and judicial cooperation, migration agreements, and frameworks for combating terrorism and organised crime are not used to facilitate the persecution of human rights defenders, journalists, or political opponents across borders.
- Apply enhanced scrutiny to extradition requests, INTERPOL Red Notices and Diffusions, and other international alerts issued by States with documented records of targeting critics and human rights defenders abroad.
- Establish accessible and secure reporting channels and provide legal assistance, psychosocial support, and effective protection measures for victims and their families.
- Provide expedited access to asylum procedures, resettlement, and humanitarian visas for individuals facing an imminent risk of transnational repression.
- Require technology companies to conduct human rights due diligence, protect users’ personal data, and prevent their platforms from being used for surveillance, defamation, incitement, or coordinated reporting campaigns intended to silence voices in exile.
- Systematically address transnational repression in human rights reviews, bilateral relations, migration agreements, and security and political cooperation with the Egyptian authorities.
- Urge the Egyptian authorities to end all forms of targeting of Egyptians abroad and their relatives, stop the arbitrary denial of passports, civil documentation, and consular services, and end politically motivated prosecutions, trials in absentia, and retaliatory measures.
EHRF will continue documenting cases of transnational repression and updating its database. It will also continue engaging with UN mechanisms, European institutions, host-country authorities, civil society organisations, and technology companies to ensure that growing international recognition of the phenomenon is translated into concrete measures that protect victims, establish accountability, and prevent recurrence.
