Ebrahim Sharif’s Arrest Exposes Bahrain’s Ongoing Repression of Free Expression

The Bahraini authorities arrested opposition leader and former Waad Society secretary general, Ebrahim Sharif, on 12 November 2025, on charges related to exercising his right of freedom of expression. Sharif remains detained to this day, underscoring the government’s ongoing repression of dissent and its use of silencing critics as a tool of control and intimidation.[…]

Migrant Domestic Workers Must Be Protected by Bahraini Law

In Bahrain, female migrant domestic workers (MDWs) face a multitude of obstacles in achieving rights and liberty. Class, race, religion and gender intersect to create barricades excluding MDWs from Bahraini society. With nearly half of Bahrain’s population made up of migrant workers, there are thousands of MDWs facing unjust working conditions. While Bahrain has officially[…]

Biometric Surveillance and Personal Data Protection in the Gulf: A Growing Human Rights Concern

Over the past decade, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been enacting Personal Data Protection Laws (PDPLs) in order to better regulate the collection and processing of their citizens’ personal information. Even though these laws can be considered as an important step forward in safeguarding privacy in increasingly digitalized societies, they also raise important[…]

Eight Years of Unfulfilled Promises: What ADHRB’s Report to the Committee Against Torture Reveals About Bahrain?

Executive summary The following report was produced by Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain and included information presented during the July 2025 session of the UN Committee Against Torture. It considers developments in Bahrain regarding the recommendations that the organisation had raised in the 2017 CAT report. For each of the 18 recommendations,[…]

Why Trading With the GCC Leads to Complicity in Human Rights Abuse

In recent years, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries have begun to play an increasingly prominent role in international trade. This change is mainly due to the socio-economic transformation that many of these countries are undergoing. However, this progress often serves to conceal the constant human rights abuses and repression that take place within these countries.[…]