Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) welcomes the Belgian Senate’s adoption of resolution 7-142/2 on the human rights situation in Bahrain. The resolution, proposed by Senator Orry Van de Wauwer, specifically addresses the use of the death penalty and violations to freedom of expression and association.

The resolution, passed on the 9th anniversary of Bahrain’s popular uprising, acknowledges that the Bahraini government continues, and even intensified, its “crackdown and campaign of repression and persecution against political and human rights activists”, and strongly condemns the use of the death penalty, calling on the Belgian government to urge Bahrain to “re-establish a moratorium on the death penalty” and to “retry” the cases of torture victims on death row, Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Ali Moosa.

Read the full statement here.

New and Notable

Profile in Persecution: Mohamed Ahmed Husain Ahmed

Ongoing Detention of Women’s Rights Defenders in Saudi Arabia

Open Letter from Over 50 NGOs and Individuals to the UAE authorities

As the Hay Festival Abu Dhabi opens on 25-28 February 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), we the undersigned call on the Emirati authorities to demonstrate their respect for the right to freedom of expression by freeing all human rights defenders imprisoned for expressing themselves peacefully online, including academics, writers, a poet and lawyers. In the context of the Hay Festival, the UAE’s Ministry of Tolerance is promoting a platform for freedom of expression, while keeping behind bars Emirati citizens and residents who shared their own views and opinions. We support the efforts of festival participants to speak up in favour of all those whose voices have been silenced in the UAE. We further support calls for the UAE authorities to comply with international standards for prisoners, including by allowing prisoners of conscience to receive books and reading materials.

Read the full statement here.