Stifled Verse: The Case of Mohammed al-Ajami

Since clinching its 2022 World Cup bid, Qatar has faced heightened international scrutiny. As workers have broken ground on elaborate new facilities for the tournament, human rights defenders have pointed to the country’s abusive kafala sponsorship system and the horrible conditions under which migrant laborers work. Yet Qatar engaged in human rights abuses long before its[…]

The Trial of the 94

Although the UAE is rarely mentioned in relation to the Arab Spring, Emiratis did not remain silent in 2011. A group of activists petitioned the president to call for democracy, an elected parliamentary body, and legislative powers for the Federal National Council. A majority of the petitioners belonged to an Islamist organization called al-Islah, which[…]

August Champions for Justice: Bahrain’s Student Prisoners

Since 2011, students and children in Bahrain have faced arbitrary charges and detention related to their freedoms of expression and assembly. Some have been arrested for participating in pro-democracy protests; others have been detained for apparently no reason at all. Bahraini authorities have treated preteen and teenage citizens as enemies, subjecting them to maltreatment, impeding[…]

NGOs Voice Concern Over Sitra Arbitrary Arrest Campaign Following Last Week’s Bombing

5 August 2015 – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) are extremely concerned over the escalated measures and collective punishment the authorities have subjected the people of Sitra to in the aftermath of the bombing incident. On[…]

Bahrain NGOs commend WGAD decisions on Bahrain

22 July 2015—Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) commend the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) for their decisions released today declaring an additional eight Bahraini prisoners of conscience to be arbitrarily detained. However,[…]