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[…]

Profile in Persecution: Ahmed Fadhel Hobail

Ahmed Fadhel Hobail was only 15 years old when he was summoned and then arrested in 2021. He was subjected to threats and other forms of violence throughout the process of interrogation. Ahmed is currently serving his one-year sentence in a center for orphans or children with unknown parents. When Ahmed was first summoned in[…]

Human Rights Organizations Address F1 Sportswashing in Joint Letters to Drivers

On 24 March 2022, ADHRB and nine other human rights organizations issued joint letters to four Formula 1 (F1) drivers – George Russell, George Russell, Max Verstappen, and Sebastian Vettel – ahead of the F1 race in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The groups expressed their concern for F1’s complicity in the Saudi government’s use of the[…]