After one month, Bahraini man remains disappeared

UPDATE: On the evening of 27 November 2016, the family informed that Sayed Alawi Husain Alawi Husain called his mother and his wife. Sayed Alawi reported the he was being held in detention at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID). It is unclear at this time why CID authorities did not inform Sayed Alawi’s family of[…]

EVENT SUMMARY – #TriedForTweets: Social Media Activism and State Surveillance in the GCC

16 November 2016 – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) held an event at American University in Washington, DC, on how state surveillance by Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) governments has negatively affected human rights activists and other civil society members’ social media use. ADHRB’s Advocacy Fellow, Mobashra Tazamal, hosted the event. Panelists[…]

The Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights’ Mohammad al-Qahtani

Mohammad al Qahtani is a former economics professor and one of the principal visionaries behind the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Associations (ACPRA). On 9 March 2013, a Riyadh criminal court sentenced him and fellow ACPRA co-founder, Abdullah al-Hamid, to ten and eleven years in prison respectively. Al-Qahtani’s sentencing and imprisonment is the result of[…]

NGO Letter of Appeal: Human rights defender Ghada Jamsheer remains in jail despite poor health

Women’s rights defender, writer and blogger Ghada Jamsheer remains in jail in Bahrain serving a combined ten-month sentence for exercising her right to free expression on Twitter. On 7 November 2016, Jamsheer appeared before Judge Mohamed Al-Khalifa of the High Criminal Court of Appeal to request that she be freed to serve out the remainder[…]

Saudi government to execute protester with disabilities

On 4 November 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sentenced Munir al-Adam, 23 years old, to death. Security forces arrested him in 2012 for his involvement in the 2011 protests, when he was 18 years old. During his trial, authorities did not allow him access to a lawyer. Al-Adam is partially blind and partially deaf.[…]