Government Reprisals for Civil Society-UN Human Rights Engagement: Int’l Community Must Hold Bahrain Accountable

On 1 May 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council conducted Bahrain’s third-cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In this most recent iteration of Bahrain’s review, dozens of states issued 217 recommendations to the Government of Bahrain, outlining numerous ways to improve the country’s human rights record. These recommendations covered a wide range of important thematic[…]

Assessing Bahrain’s UPR National Report: Part III – Press Freedom and National Dialogue

Below you will find the third installment of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)’s assessments of claims made in the Bahraini government’s National Report to the United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group. Assessments contain excerpted information from the full UPR assessment issued by ADHRB, the Bahrain Center for Human[…]

Bahrain: Widespread Reprisals against Activists Ahead of UPR

26 April 2017 – Bahraini authorities have initiated a new campaign of reprisals against political activists, human rights defenders, and other civil society actors ahead of the kingdom’s third cycle of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) beginning on 1 May 2017. We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the judicial harassment of[…]

Bahrain: Court Postpones Hearing in Case to Dissolve Wa’ad Political Society

18 April 2017 – A Bahraini court yesterday decided to postpone to 30 April 2017 the final hearing in the government’s case to dissolve the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad), a secular liberal political society. Yesterday’s hearing was the second in the case against Wa’ad, and the verdict is expected in May. We, the undersigned,[…]

Bahrain’s UPR National Report: A Response with Selected Assessments – Part I

This is the first installment in ADHRB’s series assessing Bahrain’s National Report on its Universal Periodic Review implementation status.  For the second installment, click here, and for the third installment, click here. In advance of Bahrain’s third four-year cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights (UPR), the Office of the High Commissioner for[…]