Newsletter #112

NGOs Condemn Arrest of Opposition Leader Ebrahim Sharif On Sunday 12 July, Bahrain’s police arrested Ebrahim Sharif, the former General Secretary of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad). Sharif is one of the “Bahrain 13”, a group of prominent human rights defenders and opposition figures in Bahrain. He was recently released from detention on 19[…]

ADHRB and BIRD Cautiously Welcome Pardon of Nabeel Rajab

13 July 2015 – Washington, DC – Coming on the heels of Ebrahim Sharif’s re-arrest this Sunday, prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab was pardoned yesterday and released from prison due to “health reasons,” after serving four months of his six month sentence. While Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) and the[…]

Elections in Bahrain: Can the Stalemate be Broken in Time?

On 5 June, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) and the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) hosted an event at teh Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to discuss the upcoming elections in Bahrain. The event included: Matar Ibrahim Matar, former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bahrain; Les Campbell, Middle[…]

Bahraini government on verge of dissolving Wa’ad political society

On 17 April 2017, a Bahraini court held its second hearing to dissolve the National Democratic Action Society, the country’s largest secular, leftist opposition society. The government accused the society, also known as Wa’ad, of undermining state security and supporting terrorism. The justice ministry’s case against Wa’ad is representative of the government’s ongoing suppression of[…]

Despite human rights violations, US-Bahrain security cooperation continues

Over the last few months the Bahraini government has stepped up its domestic repression by imprisoning and exiling human rights defenders, shutting down the largest political opposition society, and arresting and imprisoning dozens of Bahrainis who exercise their right to free expression and freedom of assembly. Following the citizenship revocation of Sheikh Isa Qassim in[…]