17 July 2018 – Yesterday, the Government of Bahrain presented a Voluntary National Review (VNR) of its efforts to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the High-Level Political Forum of the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), claiming that the kingdom has made significant progress towards the 17 objectives laid out[…]
Bahrain’s Public Prosecution presented its argument in the new case against arbitrarily imprisoned opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman today, 8 March 2018, calling for the “maximum penalty” to be imposed on the politician and his two in absentia codefendants, Sheikh Hassan Ali Juma Sultan and Ali Mehdi Ali Al Aswad. The three men – all[…]
Yesterday, on 19 February 2018, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation ruled to uphold the arbitrary dissolution of Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society – the country’s largest political opposition group which was originally closed in July 2016. The same day, 19 February, the government announced that the High Criminal Court again adjourned the trial of Sheikh Ali Salman,[…]
**Update: On 29 November 2017, Bahraini authorities postponed the trial of Sheikh Ali Salman, Secretary-General of the now-dissolved opposition group Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, to 28 December. Sheikh Salman, who remains imprisoned on charges stemming solely from a political speeches he delivered in 2014, was not present at the first session of his new trial[…]
1 November 2017 – Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) spoke with CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation to discuss increasing repression in Bahrain and opportunities for international engagement. In the interview, “Closure of civic space constitutes an existential threat to independent civil society in Bahrain,” Michael Payne, Director of Advocacy, and[…]