Prisoner Profile: Sultan bin Kayed al-Qasimi

Sultan bin Kayed al-Qasimi is a member of the ruling family of the Ras al-Khaimah emirate and a leader of al-Islah (The Reform), a political association in the UAE. On 20 April 2012, armed men dressed in civilian clothes entered al-Qasimi’s home and arrested him. According to his son Abdullah, the men took al-Qasimi to[…]

Dispatch: Bahrain Newspapers Sign Restrictive “Charter of Press Ethics”

On 2 December 2015, the Government of Bahrain announced that the editors-in-chief of Bahrain’s six daily newspapers had reviewed and agreed to a new “Charter of Press Ethics” with the Ministry of Information Affairs Authority (IAA). Spearheaded by the Information and Parliamentary Affairs (IPA) Ministry, IPA Minister Isa bin Abdulrahman Al Hammadi stressed that the[…]

NGOs Condemn Death Sentences in Bahrain After Record Year

 8 January 2016 — Bahraini and international NGOs strongly condemn the repeated use of the death penalty by Bahraini authorities and call for the government to commute the death and life sentences. On 31 Demember 2015, Bahrain’s Fourth Criminal Court sentenced a man to death and 22 others to life imprisonment, bringing the total number[…]

Champions for Justice: Victims of Government Reprisals

Since Bahrain’s pro-democracy uprising began in 2011, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) have documented numerous cases of government retaliation against human rights defenders and activists. Less well-known, however, are cases of retaliation against these individuals’[…]

Nimr al-Nimr: Britain and the US Must Condemn ‘Reckless’ Saudi Arabia Over Cleric’s Execution

Today, the International Business Times published an op-ed by ADHRB Executive Director Husain Abdulla regarding international fallout over the execution of Saudi cleric and political activist Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The first paragraphs of the article are found below; the rest can be viewed on the IB Times website. Saudi authorities were not always so rash.[…]