Joint Side Event at HRC53 – The #FreeAlKhawaja Case: How regimes aim to silence HRDs through long-term detention

 3 July 2023 – Today, as part of the 53^rd session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) held a joint side event with the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Al Salam Foundation, to highlight how regimes aim to silence human rights defenders through long-term detentions. This event focused mainly on this pattern in Bahrain, with the striking example of AbdulHadi al-Khawaja. Michael Khambatta, the GCHR representative in Geneva, moderated the discussion. Maryam al-Khawaja, AbdulHadi al-Khawaja’s daughter, human rights consultant, and director of the Free Al-Khawaja campaign, gave remarks together with Ms. Birgit Kainz-Labbe, coordinator of the Civic Space Unit at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Read the full article here

Constitutional provisions on gender equality and laws guaranteeing equal rights to confer citizenship are crucial for ensuring women’s legal equality, but gaps remain in many countries. According to the UN Women Report of 2022 on the Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, it may take up to 286 years to secure such overarching legal frameworks worldwide.

Nevertheless, the right to a nationality is a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”. It is also directly related to the rights of children, with Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and Article 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) ensuring that “every child has the right to acquire a nationality”.

Read the full article here

Ali Jaffar Ashoor Ali 

Ali Jaffar Ali is a young Bahraini man who was 18 years old when he was warrantlessly arrested in 2014, subjected to multiple human rights violations including torture and unfair trial, and charged in multiple cases. He is currently serving his sentence at Jau Prison.

Ali was arrested for the first time in 2012 and was sentenced to six months in prison after he was charged with destroying surveillance cameras. On 15 February 2013, he was arrested for the second time and sentenced to one-year imprisonment after he was charged with illegal assembly and possession of Molotov cocktails.

His third and final arrest took place on 29 September 2014, when officers broke into his house at 4:00 A.M. without knocking on the door and pursued him over the roofs of nearby houses. The attack on the house was carried out by a significant number of police vehicles, with approximately five jeeps and three armored vehicles, in addition to one helicopter. They were finally able to capture him with the help of the helicopter which guided them to his location. The officers did not present any warrant or mention the reason for the arrest.

Read the full article here