UN Special Procedures Publishes Joint Communication to Saudi Arabia on Women’s Rights Defenders

Throughout October 2018, United Nations (UN) Special Procedures sent three separate joint communications to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expressing concerns over a myriad of human rights violations, ranging from the targeting of human rights defenders to extrajudicial executions for protest-related offenses committed by minors to arbitrary arrests and detentions. This blog series highlights these[…]

ADHRB and NGOs Send Letter to Secretary Pompeo Ahead of His Trip to Bahrain

11 January 2019 – Last week, on 4 January 2019, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) in cooperation with the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR), sent a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of his trip to Bahrain calling[…]

Profiles in Persecution: Husain Ebrahim Ahmed

Husain Ebrahim Ahmed is a 28-year-old Bahraini who was arrested in 2015. Since then Husain has been forcibly disappeared, subjected to an unfair trial and brutal torture, and denied healthcare by Bahraini authorities. On 29 August 2015, officers in plain clothing, officers from the Special Security Force Command (SSFC), and officers from the Ministry of[…]

Former UN Human Rights Commissioner’s Lack of Concern Over Disappeared Dubai Princess Has Implications for Enforced Disappearances

On 24 February 2018, 32-year-old Emirati princess Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum fled her residence for India in an effort to escape abuse at the hands of her father, Dubai ruler and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Despite planning her escape for seven years, she was captured and deported[…]

UN Experts: Mass Trial in Bahrain Violated Human Rights – Torture, Enforced Disappearances, and Unfair Trials

On 5 November 2018, five UN rights experts published an allegation letter concerning the unfair mass trial of 138 Bahraini citizens for their alleged involvement in a terror cell, named the Zulfiqar Brigades by the government. In the letter, the experts, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges[…]