ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #352
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** Bahrain
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Torture Survivors Face Imminent Execution After Bahrain’s Highest Court Finalises Death Sentences Against Two, Reinstates Citizenship to One
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Bahrain’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest appeals court, upheld the death sentence against Zuhair Ibrahim Jasim Abdullah, a 40-year old former restaurateur arrested in November 2017 on suspicion of carrying out a terror attack which killed a police officer. The death sentence of another individual, Hussein Abdullah Khalil Rashid, was also upheld this morning and both men now face imminent execution having exhausted all legal remedies. Both men maintain that they were forced to sign confessions under torture.

Zuhair, a father of five children, was held incommunicado for 55 days after his arrest, during which time he was interrogated without the presence of a lawyer at Bahrain’s Criminal Investigations Directorate and Royal Academy of Policing. In a telephone conversation in October last year, Zuhair told BIRD that during this time he was subjected to a range of abuses including beatings, electric shocks, sexual assault and attempted rape, while officers also threatened to murder his children and rape his wife, who was beaten and threatened at gunpoint by security officers at their home. After 13 days of continuous torture, Zuhair was coerced into a false confession

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

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** BREAKING: Bahrain’s Leading Rights Activist Nabeel Rajab Released From Prison Under Alternative Sentencing
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On 9 June 2020, Nabeel Rajab, Bahrain’s most prominent human rights defender and president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, has been released from Jau Prison under alternative sentencing legislation after serving almost four years on two convictions for criticising Bahrain’s government on social media and in television interviews.

The decision to release Nabeel was announced unexpectedly by his lawyer and family members just days before the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment on 13 June 2016. Following his arrest, Rajab was convicted to seven years imprisonment in two separate trials, both of which violated Rajab’s right to freedom of expression and opinion. Nabeel was due to be released in 2023.

Nabeel’s trial and conviction were met with international outrage, with the United Nations, politicians and human rights NGOs condemning the verdict as a brazen attack on freedom of expression. In August 2018, 127 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, echoed the call for Nabeel’s immediate release and compensation after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention once again declared his imprisonment to be not only arbitrary but also discriminatory.

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


** Profile in Persecution
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Husain Hasan Abdulnabi
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Husain was a 34-year-old self-employed bus driver when he was arrested on 10 December 2017. After being arbitrarily detained and subjected to torture, he was sentenced to life in prison and stripped of his nationality in an unfair trial. He is currently in Jau Prison.

On 10 December 2017, at 2 am, National Security Agency (NSA) agents, civilian officers, and riot police raided the house Husain was in without presenting a warrant. The raid lasted until noon the next day, and the officers arrested Husain while he was unconscious due to how severely he was beaten. Husain was not wanted or convicted. His family believes he was targeted in order to confess on his brother Ridha, who had fled the country and was convicted in the same case as Husain, and because of his relationship with his cousin Salman Isa, who is on death row; Salman had been mentioned in Husain’s interrogation.

Husain was taken to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) where he remained for 39 days for interrogation. His lawyer was not permitted to attend the interrogations. On 11 December, he was able to call his family for a few seconds and inform them of his whereabouts. At the CID, Husain suffered through different forms of torture which led to him losing consciousness and vomiting. Officers allegedly beat, electrocuted, sexually assaulted and raped him. He was forced to stand for long durations of time in an extremely cold room. He was also pulled on the ground by his genitals. This lasted throughout the interrogation in order to coerce a confession. Husain ended up confessing to the charges attributed to him.

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


** ADHRB at the UN
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The Human Rights Council has resumed its 43rd Session

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On Monday, 15 June 2020, the United Nations Human Rights Council has resumed its 43rd Session. Our Geneva-based team attended the first day of the resumed Session and has already delivered one oral intervention under the General debate of Item 6.

Follow us on our social media to receive the latest updates on ADHRB's engagement at the United Nations.

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ADHRB calls on Bahrain to implement the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review, including ending the culture of impunity
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ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the resumption of the United Nation Human Rights Council 43 under item 6 of the General Debate raising concerns on the ongoing lack of UPR implementations in Bahrain.

Watch the video and read the full statement here. ([link removed])


** Around the Gulf
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** The Plight of Human Rights Defenders in the UAE: Squalid Prison Conditions and Government Reprisals
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered to be one of the most difficult countries in the world for human rights defenders (HRDs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Their ability to operate freely in the country and to engage with the international community in order to advance human rights is constantly obstructed and restricted by the government.

Despite being a highly developed country with a competitive economy with ties to western democratic countries, it is clear that the UAE systematically fails to promote and respect fundamental freedoms. ADHRB has long documented patterns of reprisals against HRDs who engaged with the UN Human Rights system. This is particularly true at the Human Rights Council (HRC), and especially so if they are attempting to highlight problems that they and other HRDs face in order to exercise their right to freedom of expression. Due to their multilateral UN engagement, HRDs have had their voices silenced, their liberties deprived through incommunicado arrests and detentions, and have had travel bans and harsh sentences imposed upon them as a punishment for their fight for human rights. ADHRB has reported and condemned these actions, showing a systematic and growing pattern of repression that has affected HRDs in the UAE for far too long.

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


** Exclusive
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Racial Justice in America: I can’t Breath
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Much like the slogan of the Arab Spring – “bread, freedom, dignity” – “I can’t breathe” has the same sense of despair. America is, justifiably, the focus of intense anger, frustration and disappointment from people across the world. United Nations officials have spoken out about the murder of George Floyd. Like the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian who set himself on fire in an act of protest against police corruption and ill-treatment (an incident that ignited what is referred to as the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa), the death of George Floyd has sparked an “American Spring”.

Equality under the law is a cornerstone of human rights. Profiling by law enforcement and other government agencies undermines the promise of equal treatment. Investigating, surveilling, or otherwise targeting people solely on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is a clear form of discrimination and goes against numerous domestic and international laws. First, profiling drives a wedge between law enforcement and the targeted community members, making them less likely to trust and engage law enforcement, thereby making the whole community less safe. Relying on profiling also gives law enforcement agencies the disincentive to engage in effective investigative techniques. Finally, and most troublingly, profiling results in further discrimination.

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


** GCC in the Wire
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** - Prominent Bahrain rights activist Rajab released from prison (AP) ([link removed])
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Bahrain freed a prominent human rights activist Tuesday amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, allowing him to serve out the remainder of his internationally criticized prison sentence from home. Bahrain has been releasing inmates amid the pandemic, but largely had avoided freeing political prisoners.




** - Saudi-led coalition cut from U.N. blacklist of warring parties killing children (Reuters) ([link removed])
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday removed a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition from a United Nations blacklist, several years after it was first named and shamed for killing and injuring children in Yemen.


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- Coronavirus: Alarm over 'invasive' Kuwait and Bahrain contact-tracing apps (BBC) ([link removed])
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Kuwait and Bahrain have rolled out some of the most invasive Covid-19 contact-tracing apps in the world, putting the privacy and security of their users at risk, Amnesty International says.




** - Yemen’s rebels: Saudi coalition airstrike kills 13 civilians (AP) ([link removed])
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An airstrike from the Saudi-led coalition struck a vehicle carrying civilians in northern Yemen on Monday, killing 13 people, including four children, according to the Houthi rebels.



** - Saudi faces perilous hajj call as virus spikes (AFP) ([link removed])
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Saudi Arabia is expected to scale back or call off this year's hajj pilgrimage for the first time in its modern history, observers say, a perilous decision as coronavirus cases spike. Muslim nations are pressing Riyadh to give its much-delayed decision on whether the annual ritual will go ahead as scheduled in late July.



** - Emirates lays off thousands of pilots, cabin crew, plans more job cuts: sources (Reuters) ([link removed])
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Emirates, one of the world’s biggest long-haul airlines, laid off hundreds of pilots and thousands of cabin crew on Tuesday as it manages a cash crunch caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and more job cuts are planned, five company sources said.

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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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