ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #363
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** Bahrain
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** Bahrain’s Sportswashing of the Tour de France
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This weekend, on August 29, 2020, the Tour de France will set off from Nice in a 22 day cycling race broadcasted across 190 countries and garnering an expected 1 billion viewers. Joining the race is Bahrain-McLaren, a team owned by Prince Nasser bin Ahmed al-Khalifa of the ruling family of Bahrain and that stands as an example of Bahrain’s efforts to hide their human rights abuses behind influential sports teams.

A recent trend has emerged of private investors from the Gulf, often wealthy members of ruling families, purchasing shares of influential sport teams abroad. Those investments are an example of “sportswashing,” a technique whereby heads of state or business executives attempt to cover their negative international reputations by associating themselves with sports that are viewed extremely positively. By running a team in the Tour de France, Bahrain is joining a long line of countries with diminished human rights records as they attempt to distract from continued abuses with flashy events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, or Formula 1, or as they rebrand themselves by associating their names with those of beloved teams.

Read the full article here. ([link removed])
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** The Next US Ambassador and the Formulation of Human Rights in Bahrain
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The recent departure of the US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Justin Hicks Siberell, has prompted questions in Congress about America’s moral and strategic role in the Middle East. A career diplomat and counterterrorism expert, Ambassador Siberell worked closely with the Bahraini government to ensure regional security from the lens of counterterrorism. However, despite these counterterrorism efforts, Ambassador Siberell did nothing to stop the Bahraini government from arbitrarily incarcerating large numbers of its citizens and violating countless other domestic and international human rights laws; instead he was constantly celebrating new arms deals and national security advancements.

There is no dispute about the fact that the current US policy toward Bahrain lacks any regards to human rights or serious political reforms. In confirming the next ambassador to Bahrain, the US Senate needs assurances that they will prioritize stopping further de-liberalization, protecting civil liberties, and creating real accountability to ensure basic human rights, and as importantly genuine political stability.

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


** Profile in Persecution
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**
Hasan Ali Serhan
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Hasan was 22-year-old when he was arrested without a warrant in 2012 and prevented from completing his education. Hasan was forcibly disappeared, interrogated without a lawyer, tortured, and convicted in an unfair trial. Today, he remains in the Jau Central Prison where authorities have denied him access to medical treatment.

On 10 April 2012, Hasan’s village and house were surrounded by police patrols. Hasan’s house was raided and thoroughly searched. He was arrested, blindfolded, and handcuffed in his room where he had been sleeping. Hasan knew that he was wanted by the authorities because the police who raided the houses of the individuals accused alongside were arrested and questioned about Hasan’s whereabouts; however, Hasan did not know what the charges against him were.

Following his arrest, Hasan was forcibly disappeared for two weeks. During this period, he was held at the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID). On 13 April 2012, Hasan appeared in a video on YouTube, where he was taken by Bahraini forces to a cemetery. There he was filmed while acting out the crime he was accused of; among the forces present was the official from Interpol “AbdulRasoul Khamis”. Hasan spent approximately seven days at the CID, where he was told upon his arrival that he will be sentenced to 15 years in prison, and they only need his confession. He was then transferred to the Office of the Public Prosecution Office (OPP) where officers threatened him to confess. He was taken back to the CID, where he remained for another two to three days. After the interrogation, Hasan was transferred to the Dry Dock Detention center. Finally, he was transferred to the building 14 of Jau prison, where he remains today.

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


** GCC in the Wire
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- Qatar 'Dismantles' Kafala Employment System That Critics Say Allowed Abuse of Migrant Workers ([link removed]) (Time) ([link removed])
New labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles” the country’s long-criticized “kafala” employment system, a U.N. labor body said Sunday.


** - Displaced Yemenis Suffer as Aid Shortfall Closes Clinics (New York Times) ([link removed])
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Ahmed Mansour and his colleagues worked eight months without pay in a health centre in a Yemeni displacement camp out of concern for their patients. But this month they closed its doors.


** - UAE tells World Court Qatar cannot invoke anti-bias treaty in blockade row (Reuters) ([link removed])
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The United Arab Emirates argued on Monday that the World Court lacks jurisdiction to hear a case filed against it by neighbouring Qatar accusing Abu Dhabi of violating a U.N. anti-discrimination treaty.

- Saudi-led coalition says destroyed Houthi drone: Saudi Press Agency (Reuters) ([link removed])
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said it intercepted and destroyed on Friday an explosives-laden drone launched by the Iran-aligned group in the direction of Saudi Arabia, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

- Saudi Arabia detains in-law of former intelligence official, says family (Reuters) ([link removed])
Saudi Arabia has detained another relative of a former senior intelligence official living in exile who recently filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court alleging the kingdom’s crown prince had tried to have him killed, his family said on Wednesday.
- UAE records highest daily COVID-19 infections since early July (Reuters) ([link removed])
The United Arab Emirates on Monday recorded more than 500 daily COVID-19 infections, the highest number over a 24-hour period in nearly two months.

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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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