Profile in Persecution: Ali Mahmood Mahmood (AlKahraba’ii)

Ali Mahmood Mahmood (AlKahraba’ii) was a 15-year-old Bahraini school student and minor when Bahraini authorities arrested him from his grandfather’s house on 16 January 2019 without presenting an arrest warrant. During detention, he endured torture, enforced disappearance, denial of access to legal counsel, unfair trial based on confessions extracted under torture, and sectarian-based insults. Ali[…]

Persistent UAE´s efforts to maintain critics behind bars: a new mass trial

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has invested deeply into portraying itself as a progressive, tolerant and human rights-compliant state. This strategy, however, as in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, clashes with a reality in which activists and dissidents are detained and tried for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association. The recent[…]

Democracy in Saudi Arabia?: No progress in sight

Last week, the EU announced a relaxation of Schengen visa rules for the citizens of Saudi Arabia. No human rights compromises were made in exchange. Since democracy constitutes the best umbrella under which human rights can thrive, the next question follows: What is the current state of democracy in Saudi Arabia? In its new report[…]

Profiles in Persecution: Ahmed and Mahmood Mohamed Habib

Twin brothers Ahmed and Mahmood Mohamed Habib were 17-year-old minor students when Bahraini authorities arrested them along with some of their friends on 1 July 2015 while they were eating Suhoor during the month of Ramadan. During their detention, they were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, sexual harassment, sectarian-based insults, and unfair trials based on[…]

Harvest of the Profiles in Persecution: Systematic Human Rights Violations in Bahrain

Since the beginning of the popular movement demanding reform and democracy in Bahrain in 2011, the government has suppressed all forms of peaceful movements by all means and without any restraint. Repression has become a prevailing approach in the country, and prisons have been filled with prisoners of conscience, political prisoners, and human rights activists.[…]