Updated: Bahrain and the Death Penalty

***Updated: On 27 July 2019, the Government of Bahrain executed 25-year-old Ali AlArab and 24-year-old Ahmed AlMalali. Both individuals had been convicted and sentenced to death in a mass trial marred by allegations of torture and due process violations alongside 58 other individuals on 31 January 2018. A third individual from Bangladesh was also executed.[…]

Six Months of Bahraini Membership on the Human Rights Council: Human Rights Abuses Continue

12 April 2019 – Today marks six months since Bahrain won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in a blank-slate election despite “flagrant, widespread, and systematic human rights abuses.” Since joining the HRC in October of 2018, Bahrain has continued to perpetrate human rights abuses against its people. These include suspending[…]

Profiles in Persecution: Sayed Hashem Alawi

Sayed Hashem Alawi is a 22-year-old student at the University of Bahrain. He was arrested and tortured by authorities and subjected to an unfair trial. Sayed was the first defendant of 14 in the “February 14 Coalition” cases, referring to a largely informal online group which the Bahraini government has designated a terrorist organization. He[…]

Analysis: Bahrain’s Insufficient Response to the Allegation Letter Published by UN Experts on Human Rights Violations

Find our previous statement on the allegation letter sent to Bahrain on Human Rights Violations in the Mass Trial of the Zulfiqar Brigades here. On 5 November 2018, five UN experts sent an allegation letter to the Kingdom of Bahrain to address the human rights violations in connection to the mass trial of the “Zulfiqar[…]

Bahrain’s Hidden Economy

“A distinctive characteristic of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates: is the prevalence of the rentier economy.” (Bahgat, 1995) Ever since the discovery of vast reserves of natural resource wealth in the Gulf, the spotlight of the world has shifted towards the East, where new[…]