HRC37 Intervention on Cybersurveillance and Cyber Attacks on Bahraini and Emirati Activists

On Tuesday 6 March, at the 37th session of the Human Rights Council, ADHRB’s legal fellow, Bridget Quitter delivered an intervention during the Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteurs on privacy and sale of children. In her intervention, she raised the Bahraini and Emirati government’s use of cyber technology to spy on their citizens,[…]

Emirati Activist Ahmed Mansoor Spends 100 Days in Prison

This week marks 100 days of blogger and pro-democracy activist Ahmed Mansoor’s arbitrary imprisonment in the United Arab Emirates. Having been awarded the Martin Ennals Award for his exceptional work as a human rights defender, Mansoor is one of the most prominent activists in the Gulf region. On 20 March 2017, Mansoor was accused of[…]

Bahrain Restores Law Enforcement Powers to NSA, Reversing BICI Recommendation

5 January 2017 – Bahrain today restored law enforcement abilities to its National Security Agency (NSA), an institution which oversaw torture of protesters in 2011. The move reverses one of the few post-Arab Spring reforms outlined in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). The reversal comes after an escalated human rights crisis in 2016,[…]

Why Does Kuwait Want Your DNA?

The Government of Kuwait is preparing to enact a law passed last year that would require all residents and visitors of the country to submit DNA samples. The DNA will be stored in a facility operated by the General Department of Criminal Evidence for an unknown range of potential applications. The international human rights and[…]

Dispatch: Germany Must Not Enable the Human Rights Violations of its Gulf Allies

Bahrain and Germany’s bilateral relations, which date back to 17 May 1972, have helped enable the Bahraini government to usher in an era of unprecedented repression and human rights violations. Over the past 44 years, Germany has engaged in substantial military and security cooperation with Bahrain and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states despite[…]