Trump to Visit Saudi Despite Ongoing Rights Abuses

On 19 May, President Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia for his first overseas trip as president. During his trip, he will also visit Israel, the Vatican, and take part in a NATO meeting in Brussels and the G7 meeting in Sicily. His trip comes amid news that the US government will[…]

Bahrain: Entry refusal to journalist and HRW researcher part of a larger pattern

17 May 2017 – Bahraini authorities last week denied entry visas to German journalist Robert Kempe and American Human Rights Watch researcher Omar Shakir, both of whom were seeking to visit Bahrain in connection with the FIFA Congress being held in Manama on 10 and 11 May. In both cases, the Bahraini government’s decisions appear[…]

HRD Nabeel Rajab’s Free Expression Trials Postponed in Bahrain

17 May 2017 – Bahraini courts this week have again postponed two separate trials of prominent Bahraini human rights defender Nabeel Rajab. Both trials are based on charges that violate Rajab’s right to free expression. The Bahraini authorities have detained Rajab since June 2016 and are prosecuting him in connection with television interviews and tweets[…]

Silence as early review period ends on US jet sale to Bahrain

In late March 2017, the New York Times reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would be dropping human rights conditions from a major sale of F-16 combat aircraft to the Bahraini government. The formal notification was set to have been announced last week barring any reservations from Congress. As of the publication of this[…]

Bahrain Escalates Campaign of Reprisals

16 May 2017 – In recent weeks, the Government of Bahrain has substantially escalated its campaign of reprisals against the country’s civil and political societies. So far in the month of May 2017, authorities have targeted family members of exiled human rights defenders and turned a blind eye to the violent intimidation of Bahraini activists[…]