ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #351
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** Bahrain
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UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion: 20 Bahrainis are Arbitrary Detained as part of “Zulfiqar trial”
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The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) published an opinion concerning the cases of 20 Bahraini citizens convicted by the Bahraini Fourth High Criminal Court on 15 May 2018, following a mass trial involving 138 defendants. These 138 defendants were convicted for their alleged involvement in a terrorist cell, called the “Zulfiqar Brigades” by the Bahraini government. The WGAD ultimately determined that the imprisonment of these individuals is in violation of several international human rights laws concerning their arbitrary detention. The Working Group has requested the government of Bahrain to take immediate action to remedy the situation.

This includes the immediate and unconditional release of the prisoners who remain in detention and ensure that they receive medical care. According to the Working Group, under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty may constitute crimes against humanity. Due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, WGAD maintains there is a further deepening threat toward the health of individuals held in detention – and that the Bahraini Government needs to immediately release the 18 individuals to mitigate against the threat of the disease.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])


** Profile in Persecution
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Ali Husain Maki
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Ali was an 18-year-old student in Tubli when he was arrested for the second time on 15 January 2019. Ali was violently arrested at his grandfather’s house, beaten and threatened by the authorities. He has since been subjected to two weeks of torture, as well as an unfair trial. Ali remains imprisoned in the New Dry Dock Detention Centre for convicts aged under 21.

On 15 January 2019, at around 7.30 am, Ali was arrested at his grandfather’s house in Tubli. Regarding the arrest warrant issued by Officer Salman Ghazi AlMosallem, officers in civilian clothing and cars containing officers from the riot police led by Lieutenant Daaij Khalifa Al-Kowari surrounded the district of the grandfather’s house and it was raided. The forces arrested Ali, beat him and seized his father’s car. They did not provide any warrant or reason behind the arrest. The forces also seized two mobile phones and a bag, according to the testimony of Lieutenant Daaij Khalifa Al-Kowari.

The day of his arrest, Ali was transferred to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), examined at Al Qalaa hospital and then transferred to Jau Prison. Ali’s family did not know anything about him for two days before he finally called them. He told them he was at the CID and that the forces fabricated many charges against him. After this call, the family did not have any news from their son before his last day of investigation through which he was transferred to Dry Dock Detention Center.

Read the full report here. ([link removed])


** ADHRB at the UN
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** Human Rights Council 43rd/44th
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On Monday, 8 June 2020, ADHRB has participated in a second Virtual Consultation Meeting with the Secretariat of the Human Rights Council, Permanent Missions to the UN, and NGOs on resuming the 43rd Session of the HRC on 15 June 2020. Updates will be given by the Bureau in due course and before the beginning of the Session.

ADHRB has also been invited to join the Organisational Meeting on the 44th session of the Human Rights Council. This will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 10 June from 10:00 (Geneva time).

Follow the latest UN HRC news here. ([link removed])


** Around the Gulf
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** Dispatch: How the US Arms Export Industry Sustain Human Rights Violators in the Yemen War
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The report Trends in International Arms Transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has confirmed The United States’ first position in the top 5 largest worldwide arms exporters for several years now. The period from 2015 to 2019 has demonstrated a crucial time for the US to re-establish their commercial supremacy in the global weapons export market. SIPRI reported that the US increased its major arms exports by 23% in 2015-19, reaching a share of 36% of the total global arms exports. In the same period of time, the US was also busy strengthening their already established partnered relationships with their most high profile importers.

The US arms policy is not concerned with where or how their weapons are ultimately used. This is despite evidence showing that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have employed US-imported weapons in the bloody war in Yemen, flouting international human rights law and international humanitarian law standards. Profit, it seems, is the core policy of the US government and US military-industrial complex.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])

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** Building Secret State Surveillance Systems: How the Export of European Spyware Facilitates Human Rights Violations in Gulf States

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The Danish government has traditionally been a vocal supporter of human rights. For example, the Government of Denmark was one of the signatories of a Human Rights Council Joint Statement on Saudi Arabia that expressed its concern regarding the murder and torture of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Despite their good reputation, the Danish government has on occasion demonstrated a double standard. Although they may call on the governments to halt the torture of human rights activists, their business dealings with authoritarian regimes actually put their lives in danger.

The most prominent case of this is the 2017 sale of spyware to authoritarian states such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. This dispatch will assess the sale of the spyware, how the Danish government approved such a sale, and how that sale may have put human rights defenders, that Denmark claims to protect, at serious risk.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])

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** The Portuguese Left Bloc in Parliament Condemns the Ongoing Arbitrary Arrest of Women’s Rights Activists in Saudi Arabia
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On May 21, the Bloco de Esquerda (The Left Bloc) passed a “condemning vote” in parliament related to the Saudi Women Human Rights Defender’s Arrest. The instrument specifically details the ordeal of Samar Badawi, Nassima Al-Sadah and Loujain Alhathoul who were arbitrarily arrested, detained and sentenced in a manner that was in breach of a number of international human rights norms.

The women were arrested in 2018 after the driving ban was abolished in Saudi Arabia. The move is seen as a government reprisal against women’s human right’s activism. Samar Badawi, in particular, has been a vocal government critic and has previously challenged the Saudi regime by attempting to register to vote and by driving her car (before the ban on women driving was lifted). She has been jailed multiple times for her activism and continues to be persecuted by the authorities to this day.

It is also not the first time that the Left Bloc has condemned Saudi Arabia for its human rights violations. Another example was in 2016 when the Portuguese political party condemned the kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the worrying increase in the number executions that had recently spiked in the country. In this condemnation, the Left Blok also highlighted the assassination of Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite religious leader of Saudi Arabia.
Read the full article here. ([link removed])


** GCC in the Wire
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** - ([link removed]) AFC urged to mandate human rights into 2027 Asian Cup bids ([link removed]) (AP) ([link removed])
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A global activist group urged Asia’s soccer body on Wednesday to mandate respecting human rights into bidding for and organizing the 2027 Asian Cup. Expected bidders include India, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia ahead of a June 30 deadline set by the Asian Football Confederation to enter the contest.


** - Race protests spark calls for Arab states to end 'exploitative' migrant worker system (Reuters) ([link removed])
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Global anti-racism protests sparked calls on Monday for Arab countries to abolish an “exploitative” system of sponsorship for migrant workers that has been likened to modern slavery. About 23 million migrants, mostly from poor African and Asian countries, work in the Arab world under a system known as kafala that generally binds them to one employer, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.


** - Coronavirus frustrates Saudi women's push for financial independence (Reuters) ([link removed])
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Abeer al-Howayan despaired of ever working after spending eight years trying to find a job that would put her chemistry degree to use in the Saudi Arabian town of Al Ula. The pandemic has hammered Saudi Arabia’s nascent non-religious tourism industry - among the few new sectors to have emerged under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s drive to diversify the economy from oil and create millions of jobs.


** - Yemen Aid Falls Short, Threatening Food and Health Programs (NYTimes) ([link removed])
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The country has been hammered by years of war, hunger and disease. Is the world prepared to watch it “fall off the cliff?” a United Nations official asks. International donors pledged about $1.35 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen on Tuesday, far short of the $2.4 billion the United Nations had said was needed to pull a country shredded by years of war, hunger and disease from the brink of further disaster.



** - Coronavirus crisis 'could help ease Gulf tensions' (BBC) ([link removed])
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Countries in the Gulf region - Iran and the six Gulf Arab states - will emerge "weaker, poorer and damaged" from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the UAE's Minister of State, Dr Anwar Gargash. Speaking to the BBC from Abu Dhabi, he said the answer was for the whole region to try to de-escalate its tensions.


** - Qatar to lift lockdown in four phases from June 15 (Reuters) ([link removed])
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Qatar will start lifting coronavirus restrictions under a four-phase plan starting on June 15, when some mosques can reopen and flights can depart, government spokeswoman Lulwa Rashed al-Khater said on Monday.
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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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