Jdea Abdullah Nawfal is a Syrian human rights defender and the executive director of the Syrian Centre for Democracy and Civil Rights. He has been active in the human rights field since 1989 and was one of the co-founders of the Committees for the Defense of Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Syria. In 1992, he was arrested due to his peaceful human rights work and sentenced to five years in prison with hard labour, which he served at Sednaya military prison. He was released in 1997. On 31 October 2014, he was arbitrarily arrested and detained by Syrian authorities, who denied him access to lawyers and family. The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) condemned his arrest and called for his immediate and unconditional release, as well as for the guarantee of his physical and psychological integrity while in detention. He was released on 17 December 2014.

On 01 April 2016, Nawfal was again arrested at the immigration office at the Syrian-Lebanese border by members of the Syrian security forces and was prevented from attending a workshop on human rights in Beirut. He was released on 23 April 2016.

On 03 May 2023, Nawfal was brutally attacked in Al-Suwayda by an unknown person, which resulted in injuries and fractures throughout his body, including a deep wound in his head