ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #404
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** Bahrain
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** “Rights Groups Call on France to rescind Bahrain’s Supreme Women Council participation in Generation Equality Forum”
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Nine women’s rights organizations have joined forces to question the participation of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) at the Generation Equality Forum. ADHRB, CODEPINK, Women’s March Global, MENA Rights Group, EPAPI Paris, Gender in Geopolitics Institute, Gulf Center for Human Rights, Women in War, and La Minutieuse have demanded in a joint letter that France reconsider the invitation sent to the Supreme Council for Women of Bahrain to attend the Generation Equality Forum in Paris.

On January 30, 2021, the SCW indicated that it would participate in the Generation Equality Forum, a global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women and co-chaired by France and Mexico, along with the leadership and partnership of civil society. The event will be held in Paris from June to July 2021. Following the decision of the French Ambassador to invite a delegation from Manama to the event, nine organizations have come together to denounce this invitation.

We believe that the SCW does not abide by the principles of the Forum, and that its presence would only reinforce the misleading message that Bahrain effectively protects human rights.

This is fully addressed in our joint letter, which can be found here: ENG ([link removed]) - FR ([link removed])

Read full article here ([link removed])


** 16 French MPs Denounce Bahrain’s Human Rights Abuses in Letter to Ambassador to Bahrain
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Following the initiative launched by ADHRB alongside the French Member of Parliament (MP) Frédérique Dumas, 15 other MPs from the Assemblée Nationale (lower house), have endorsed a letter to the Ambassador of France to Bahrain. This letter alerts him to the deplorable conditions that detainees, and in particular prisoners of conscience, are facing in Bahraini prisons.

The full letter can be read here ENG ([link removed]) - (OFFICIAL) FR ([link removed])

MP Dumas and her colleagues have shed light on the reality of the “alternative sentences” that were applauded by the French Ambassador, Mr. Jérôme Cauchard at the end of March. The alternative sentencing program enables the Bahraini government to further stifle the political opposition. Indeed, it alleges the total liberation of detained prisoners of conscience. However, in reality these prisoners are put into arbitrary house arrest and are thus prevented from exercising their most fundamental rights.

This is, for example, the case of Nabeel Rajab. Nabeel Rajab is a prominent human rights defender and President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. He was part of the pro-democracy movement in 2011. For these reasons he has been targeted, harassed, and imprisoned several times. He was released from prison in 2020 but is now under the alternative sentencing program.

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** Profiles in Persecution
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** Abbas Hasan Hasan
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Abbas Hasan Hasan, a driver at Ruyan company, was almost 26 years old when he was arrested and kidnapped from a car outside his house. Abbas was tortured and convicted in an unfair mass trial. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Jau prison, Abbas contracted the virus.

Around 10 or 11 December 2017, Abbas was warrantlessly arrested outside of his house by masked officers in civilian clothing. The officers surrounded the car Abbas was in, and severely beat and kidnapped him. They did not state the reason for his arrest.

Following his arrest, Abbas called his family to inform them he was at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), but then contact with him was cut off for the entire 25 days of the interrogation. The criminal investigations officers subjected Abbas to physical and psychological torture. They placed Abbas in a very cold room where he could not tell whether it was day or night. They also insulted Abbas and discriminated against him based on his Shiite religious beliefs. Abbas was also beaten severely which resulted in injuries including back pain, as well as redness and blackening in many parts of his body. Under torture, Abbas confessed to the charges raised against him, and this confession was used against him in court.

Abbas was charged with joining the terrorist group “Zulfiqar Brigades”. On 5 May 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison in a mass trial. His citizenship was also revoked but was later reinstated through royal pardon. Abbas, who was denied access to his attorney, was not provided with adequate time to prepare for the trial and present evidence.

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** ADHRB at the UN Bahrain
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** UN Experts Declare Kameel Juma Hasan Arbitrarily Detained, Note Systemic Violations in Bahrain May Constitute Crimes Against Humanity
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17 June 2021- Today the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) published an opinion on its website concerning Kameel Juma Mansoor Salman Hasan, the son of Bahraini civil society activist and former prisoner of conscience, Ms. Najah Ahmed Habib Yusuf, who had been declared arbitrarily detained by the WGAD. Facing over 20 different prosecutions on various charges, Kameel was arrested when he was only a minor, sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 27 years and 10 months after appeal, and prohibited from continuing his education in prison. The Working Group asserted that Kameel’s detention is arbitrary, due to the unlawfulness of his arrest, the various violations of his right to fair trial––from his denied access to legal representation to his coercion into signing pre-prepared records––as well as his targeting as an act of reprisal against his mother’s activism. Due to the gravity of these violations, the Working Group has referred his case to the Working Group on
Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SR on Torture), and the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (SRIJL).

Through its Un Complaint Program, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) regularly receives information from Bahraini individuals and employs their accounts as key evidence in submitted complaints to the United Nations Special Procedures Offices. As such, the documentation collected by ADHRB was the source of information upon which the WGAD based its Opinion on Kameel’s case.

In its Opinion (No. 2/2021), which it adopted on 3 May 2021, the WGAD determined that Kameel’s deprivation of liberty and detention is arbitrary according to various categories of its methods of work, and is thus in violation of Bahraini domestic law and several international human rights law provisions. The Working Group has requested the Government of Bahrain to take immediate and necessary measures to remedy Kameel’s situation, and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Read full article here ([link removed])
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** Bahrain: UN expert alarmed by prolonged detention of human rights defenders​
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GENEVA (22 June 2021) – A UN expert called on Bahrain to immediately release three human rights defenders suffering long term detention as a result of their legitimate promotion and protection of human rights in the country.

Human rights defenders Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, whose detention was declared arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and Mr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, were sentenced to life imprisonment on terrorism related charges in 2011. Another defender, Mr. Naji Fateel was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2013 for "forming illegal organizations". Reportedly, these organizations worked to promote and protect human rights in the country.

Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said she had received reports that Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja had suffered facial fractures, while Mr. Naji Fateel and Mr. Abduljalil Al-Singace had been placed in solitary confinement and denied basic medical care and their right to practice their religion. It was also reported that Mr. Abduljalil Al-Singace had been forced to make confessions and his religious books were taken away.

"The fact that their health continues to deteriorate in prison is very concerning," she said. "I urge the State to conduct an impartial and independent investigation into the allegations of torture while in prison."

Read full article here ([link removed])


** GCC in the Wire
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- EU to impose stricter export controls on cyber-surveillance items ([link removed]) (Reuters)
Following the Council of the European Union’s (Council) adoption of an updated regulation on May 10, 2021 (Updated Regulation), the European Union (EU) is set to expand its Dual-Use Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 428/2009, as amended) to authorize restrictions on exports of items that could be used to support human rights abuses, with a focus on “cyber-surveillance items,” among other changes.

- Emirati rights activist Alaa Al-Siddiq dies in UK car accident ([link removed]) (CNN)
Prominent Emirati rights activist, Alaa Al-Siddiq, 33, died in a car accident near London on Saturday. The UK-based human rights organization which she chaired, ALQST, announced her death in a statement on Sunday.

- Boris Johnson criticised for meeting Bahrain's crown prince ([link removed]) (The Guardian)
Boris Johnson has been accused of putting trade before torture after he met senior Bahraini officials in Downing Street to discuss a free trade deal with the Gulf states.

- Saudi Arabia executes man for crime potentially committed as minor ([link removed]) (Deutsche Welle)
On Tuesday, the Gulf state executed a 26-year-old citizen for crimes allegedly committed as a minor. Mustafa al-Darwish's family says he was tortured in custody; rights groups argue that his trial was not fair.

- Bahrain rejects call to free two men ([link removed]) (Global Times)
Bahrain has rejected a UN report that called for the release of Mohamed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa who are facing the death penalty and was convicted under forced confessions.

- UAE: Arbitrary Targeting of Pakistani Shia Residents ([link removed]) (Human Rights Watch)
United Arab Emirates authorities have forcibly disappeared at least four Pakistani men since October 2020 and deported at least six others without explanation, apparently based solely on their religious background, Human Rights Watch said today.

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Are you a victim of a human rights abuse in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, or other GCC states?

Document your case with the Special Procedures of the United Nations through
** ADHRB's UN Complaint Program ([link removed])
.

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