Bahrain: Joint Letter on Human Rights Situation to Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council

Re: Upcoming 56th Session of the Human Rights Council   30 May 2024 Your Excellencies, Ahead of and during the upcoming 56th Session of the Human Rights Council, we urge you and your delegation to raise concerns over the human rights situation in Bahrain, particularly regarding the continued arbitrary detention of human rights defenders and[…]

Profile in Persecution: Ebrahim Yusuf Ali AlSamahiji

Updated: Ebrahim Yusuf Ali AlSamahiji was a 39-year-old Bahraini citizen and an employee at the Aluminium Bahrain Company (ALBA) when Bahraini authorities arbitrarily arrested him from his home on 15 October 2015 without presenting an arrest warrant. During his detention, he was subjected to torture, sexual assault, religion-based insults, provocation, insults, enforced disappearance, solitary confinement,[…]

Repression Climates in Bahrain: Summoning as a Vindictive Approach for Silencing Voices

The Bahraini government promotes its human rights record through formal steps taken from time to time. These efforts often aim to cover up its violations and present an incomplete picture of the human rights situation in the country. Since the start of the popular demand movement in 2011, there has been no real reform. However,[…]

Profile in Persecution: Husain Ali Muhana

Updated: Husain Ali Muhana was a 21-year-old Bahraini student when Bahraini authorities arrested him without presenting an arrest warrant at his friend’s house on 14 December 2017. During his detention, he was subjected to torture, isolation, solitary confinement, enforced disappearance, denial of access to his lawyer during interrogation, unfair trials, and medical negligence. He is[…]

Transnational repression: a tool that extends authoritarian government’s capacity for repression

Perhaps not-so-well-known, transnational repression constitutes a threat to human rights that has been going on for decades. The phenomenon, which entails governments reaching beyond their borders to silence or deter dissent by committing human rights abuses against their nationals or former nationals, has been extensively documented by Human Rights Watch. The 2018 murder and dismemberment[…]