Human Rights Groups to Theresa May: Use Influence to End Repression in Bahrain

Human rights organizations published an open letter to UK Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of her visit to Bahrain on Tuesday 6 December urging her to raise human rights as she attends the Gulf Cooperation Council Leaders Summit. The groups warn that claims of reform are disingenuous in light of escalating repression and urge her not[…]

The Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights’ Mohammad al-Bajadi

One year ago this month, the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA) co-founder Mohammad al-Bajadi was discharged from al-Hayer prison after serving a four-year sentence. He spent the next four months in Saudi Arabia’s notorious Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Counseling and Care, an extremist rehabilitation center, despite his lifelong record of non-violent,[…]

The Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights’ Mohammad al-Qahtani

Mohammad al Qahtani is a former economics professor and one of the principal visionaries behind the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Associations (ACPRA). On 9 March 2013, a Riyadh criminal court sentenced him and fellow ACPRA co-founder, Abdullah al-Hamid, to ten and eleven years in prison respectively. Al-Qahtani’s sentencing and imprisonment is the result of[…]

NGO Letter of Appeal: Human rights defender Ghada Jamsheer remains in jail despite poor health

Women’s rights defender, writer and blogger Ghada Jamsheer remains in jail in Bahrain serving a combined ten-month sentence for exercising her right to free expression on Twitter. On 7 November 2016, Jamsheer appeared before Judge Mohamed Al-Khalifa of the High Criminal Court of Appeal to request that she be freed to serve out the remainder[…]

Saudi government to execute protester with disabilities

On 4 November 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sentenced Munir al-Adam, 23 years old, to death. Security forces arrested him in 2012 for his involvement in the 2011 protests, when he was 18 years old. During his trial, authorities did not allow him access to a lawyer. Al-Adam is partially blind and partially deaf.[…]