Jdea Nawfal
Jdea Abdullah Nawfal is the executive director of the Syrian Centre for Democracy and Civil Rights. The Centre aims to promote the culture of human rights within Syria. He was sentenced in 1992 to five years imprisonment in connection with his peaceful human rights work in the Committee for the Defence of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria.
The situation for human rights defenders (HRDs) in Syria has rapidly deteriorated since the beginning of the government's violent crackdown against nation-wide peaceful protests in 2011. HRDs, who already faced significant difficulties in remaining active under a highly repressive regime, have since been at even higher risk of direct targeting and persecution, including arbitrary arrest and detention, malicious prosecution, death threats, restrictions on their freedom of movement, abduction, defamation, and other forms of harassment and intimidation.
