UAE and the impact of spyware on human rights defenders

Introduction In October of last year, NSO Group, a leading Israeli technology company, announced that it would be terminating its contract with the United Arab Emirates. This decision was taken after it was revealed in the UK High Court that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, was using the company’s Pegasus software[…]

Challenges of being Bidoon in Kuwait

Background Kuwait gained independence in 1961, ceasing to be a British protectorate anymore. Upon this development, one-third of the population was given nationality on the basis of being ‘founding fathers’ while another third were naturalized as citizens. The remaining people were designated as bidoon jinsiya which when translated from Arabic means ‘without nationality’. According to[…]

Performative gestures cannot vanish ongoing religious discrimination in Bahrain

On April 8, 2022, Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, the King’s son and representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, held an interfaith Ramadan gathering at the Cathedral Our Lady of Arabia. In the days leading up to the event, Bahraini officials applauded the gathering as further evidence of the kingdom’s global commitment to[…]

The Interparliamentary Union is granting a dictatorship an opportunity to whitewash its human rights violations.

The recent announcement of Bahrain as the host of the 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), scheduled for March 2023, represents yet another exemplification of a grim geopolitical truth: the international community is content to excuse egregious behaviors and overlook the abuses of an authoritarian regime that continues to engage in a campaigns of[…]

Profile in Persecution: AbdulHadi Al-Khawaja

AbdulHadi Al-Khawaja, a prominent Danish-Bahraini human rights activist, has been serving his life sentence at Jau Prison since 2011. AbdulHadi, who was 50 years old at the time of his arrest, was tortured and then tried in relation to his human rights activism and criticism of the government. During his imprisonment, he has been facing[…]