Labor Reforms in Qatar & UAE Require More than Rhetoric

The international community has devoted an unprecedented level of attention to migrant labor abuses in Qatar since its successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup. NGOs and governments alike have called on the Qatari government to increase protections for migrant workers amidst a slew of abuses. Qatar has not been alone in facing international[…]

UAE Activist Receives International Human Rights Award

On 6 October 2015, a jury of ten leading human rights NGOs awarded Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The jury commended Mansoor’s continued efforts to raise awareness of common human rights abuses in the UAE, such as the arbitrary detention and torture of activists. The award celebrates human[…]

At UN, ADHRB, BIRD, & ECDHR Raise Use of Extraterritorial Censorship in GCC States

Geneva, Switzerland — 28 September 2015 — On behalf of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR), and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), ECDHR advocacy associate Isabel Cerda Marcos delivered an oral intervention on the extraterritorial censorship of activists and human rights defenders in the Gulf[…]

At UN, ADHRB Condemns Arbitrary Detention and Migrant Abuses in GCC

Geneva, Switzerland — 15 September 2015 — On behalf of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, International Advocacy Officer Michael Payne delivered an oral intervention at the 30th Session of the Human Rights Council concerning both arbitrary detention and abuse of migrant rights by governments[…]

The Trial of the 94

Although the UAE is rarely mentioned in relation to the Arab Spring, Emiratis did not remain silent in 2011. A group of activists petitioned the president to call for democracy, an elected parliamentary body, and legislative powers for the Federal National Council. A majority of the petitioners belonged to an Islamist organization called al-Islah, which[…]