Open Letter for UAE Human Rights Defender Ahmed Mansoor
Andy Burnham Mayor of Greater Manchester Manchester, UK the.mayor@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk 31 May 2018 Dear Mayor Burnham, The undersigned organisations are writing to you to request your
The freedom of expression, assembly and association continues to be severely restricted in Bahrain, where human rights defenders, opposition activists and religious leaders face arrest and harassment for speaking out against the government. Both the 2002 Press Law and the 2006 Anti-Terrorism Law, exploiting the law’s broad definition of terrorism, are employed to target the media.
In the country’s most famous freedom of expression case, Nabeel Rajab is charged with criticising the government on social media, for publishing a letter in the New York Times, as well as for criticising the government in a televised interview.
Other high-profile cases of free expression and association include opposition acitivst Ebrahim Sharif, who is charged with “incitement to hatred and contempt of the regime”, Sheikh Ali Salman, who is charged for calling for change of the regime, and Zainab al-Khawaja, who is charged for tearing up a picture of the king.
After the government has partially suspended al-Wasat newspaper, Bahrain’s only independent newspaper, a free media in Bahrain is de facto non existent. Prior government harassment against al-Wasat encompassed intimidation and the prosecution of key staff, one of whom, Karim Kakhrawi, died under torture.
Andy Burnham Mayor of Greater Manchester Manchester, UK the.mayor@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk 31 May 2018 Dear Mayor Burnham, The undersigned organisations are writing to you to request your
Further Punishments Against Leading Bahraini Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab 19 April 2018 – Leading Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab alongside other inmates
21 February 2018 – Today, the Bahrain High Criminal Court sentenced leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab to five years imprisonment for expressing critical comments
20 February 2018 – 25 members of the UK Parliament wrote to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson today, urging him to publicly call for the release
18 November – The United States Department of State (DoS) yesterday raised its “major concern” over the treatment of the imprisoned relatives of UK-based human
26 October 2017 – A Bahraini appeals court has today upheld the dissolution of Bahraini opposition society Wa’ad and the confiscation of its assets. Wa’ad was dissolved following a
The following statement was delivered by ARTICLE 19 and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, at the 36th Session of the Human Rights Council,
* Yusuf Al-Jamri made a plea to King Hamad about the torture he suffered at the hands of the National Security Agency on Thursday 3 August
8 June 2017 – Top press freedom organisations and local Bahraini groups are among fifteen rights groups and campaigners who today raised alarm over the
Today, a coalition of five human rights organizations expressed grave concern over the lack of due process rights and inhumane treatment of Khalil Al-Halwachi, a