28 December 2016 – A Bahraini court earlier today ordered the provisional release of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab on bail. However, the Public Prosecution subsequently ordered his continued detention for seven days, citing further investigation into another case in which Rajab is accused of “spreading false news,” likely to be related to letters published[…]
21 December 2016 – Bahraini authorities have today interrogated imprisoned human rights defender Nabeel Rajab on allegations stemming from a letter he recently published in the French newspaper Le Monde. The undersigned NGOs condemn in the strongest possible terms any further legal action against Rajab for exercising his fundamental right to free expression and call[…]
20 December 2016 H.E. Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais Wilson 52 rue des Pâquis CH-1201 Geneva Switzerland CC: David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on Free Expression Michele Forst, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Dear Mr. High Commissioner, We, the undersigned human rights organizations, write to urge your office[…]
The following letter was sent to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephane Dion. We, the undersigned human rights organizations, are deeply concerned by the continued targeting of individuals, including journalists, for their free expression in the Kingdom of Bahrain. As the Manama Dialogue defense conference is set to take place from December 9th to 11th,[…]
Using her Twitter handle, @angryarabiya, Zainab al-Khawaja amassed nearly 50,000 followers and became a prominent voice of the 2011 pro-democracy movement in Bahrain. She, along with fellow human rights defenders, provided on-the-ground updates on protests and demonstrations via her Twitter page. Her cyberactivism helped bring greater international attention to the human rights abuses committed by the Government[…]