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[…]

Munasaha “Rehabilitation” Centers in the UAE: A System of Indefinite Detention

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) 2014 Counter-Terrorism Law has been subject to widespread criticism for its vague and overly broad definition of terrorism. Under this law, acts that should fall under the universally protected rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association can be prosecuted as “terrorist offences.” Articles 14 and 15 go so[…]

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.[…]

How Gulf Countries Are Acquiring Spyware to Suppress Dissent

Introduction The repression of human rights activists and political dissidents is one of the biggest problems in the Gulf states. There are constant reports of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture in prisons and other incidents targeting these groups. Those who want to fight to assert their rights or criticise regimes that stifle them always find[…]

ADHRB at #HRC60 Exposes the Kafala System as Modern Slavery

On 12 September 2025, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) delivered an intervention during the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. During the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, ADHRB drew the Council’s attention to the exploitation of migrant workers in GCC countries, which[…]