Bahrain Continues Arbitrary Imprisonment of Taiba Darwish Despite Reduced Sentence

**Update: Bahraini political prisoner Taiba Darwish completed her reduced three-year sentence and was released from Isa Town Women’s Prison on Monday, 14 May 2018. On 18 April 2018, a Bahraini appeals court reduced the sentence against political prisoner Taiba Darwish from five to three years in prison. Darwish was arbitrarily imprisoned in 2016 in reprisal[…]

HRC35 Item 3 Oral Intervention: Targeting WHRDs and the Empowerment of Military Courts in Bahrain

On 12 June 2017, Michael Payne, ADHRB’s international advocacy officer delivered an oral intervention under the Item 3 Interactive Dialogue with the Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers and the Rapporteur on violence against women. In his intervention, Payne raised the cases of Loujain al-Hathloul and Ebtisam al-Saegh in the context of targeting women[…]

Bahraini authorities continue harassment of Ebtisam al-Saegh

On 22 January 2017, Bahraini government forces summoned human rights defender Ebtisam al-Saegh for questioning. Al-Saegh works to document human rights violations on the ground in Bahrain. The authorities notified al-Saegh that she would be expected at the Department of Criminal Investigation (CID) in Muharraq. Prior to the investigation, officials did not notify al-Saegh their[…]

Ghada Jamsheer arrest calls attention to Bahrain’s targeting of women

Bahraini human rights defender Ghada Jamsheer was arrested on 15 August 2016, one month ago. She had just returned to her home country of Bahrain after spending several months in London for medical treatment. As soon as she arrived at the airport in Manama, police arrested her on charges related to her criticism of Bahraini[…]

The role of women in the 2011 Bahraini uprising

When the Arab Spring made its way to Bahrain on 14 February 2011, Bahraini authorities acted quickly to suppress the peaceful protests with violence. They detained, tortured, and killed protesters for exercising their rights to free speech and assembly. The Sunni al-Khalifa government specifically targeted leaders of the political opposition, which mainly consisted of Bahrain’s[…]