HRC35 Item 8 Oral Intervention: Bahrain Continues to Violate Vienna Declaration re: Rights of Women

On Monday 19 June 2017 during the 35th session of the Human Rights Council, Salma Moussawi delivered an oral intervention on behalf of ADHRB during the Item 8 general debate. In her intervention, Moussawi raised the issue of Bahrain’s failure to live up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action’s, particularly concerning the rights[…]

Manal al-Sharif and the Struggle of WHRDs in Saudi

On June 8, Saudi women’s rights activist Manal al Sharif gave an interview with NPR and the next day she wrote an op-ed for the New York Times. In both pieces, she discusses how women cannot drive in the kingdom, the guardianship system that underpins such restrictions, and her activism challenging the societal norm. She[…]

Saudi Arabia fails to address the root of its domestic abuse problem

  In 2015, Saudi Arabia’s Justice Ministry stated that its courts saw 8,016 domestic violence cases in a one-year period. The majority of these cases were reported in Riyadh, Mekkah, and the Eastern Province, and included reports of psychological and physical abuse of both women and children. Because so many cases of domestic violence go[…]

Backtracking on Women’s Rights: Discriminatory Citizenship Law in Bahrain

Although Bahraini authorities often boast about empowering women, the government has not taken any serious steps to change the laws that prohibit Bahraini women from passing on citizenship to their families. Even though Bahrain has acceded to the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) since 2002, women in Bahrain do[…]

Event Summary: “Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia”

On 25 June 2015, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) co-sponsored an event entitled “Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia,” at the 29th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Dr.[…]