Open letter to President Biden on Bahrain
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) Executive Director Husain Abdulla sent a letter to President Joseph Biden on making human rights and democratization as priority of US policy when it comes to US-Bahrain relations. The full letter (PDF version):
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to extend my most sincere congratulations to you as you assume the office of President. I encourage you from your very first day in office to review and revise US policy on one of the most pressing and intertwined human right and national security challenges facing the United States, the Kingdom of Bahrain.
I had to leave my home country of Bahrain over twenty years ago, fleeing an oppressive government where freedom of expression and peaceful dissent did not have a place. While I was able to enjoy all the freedoms and benefits of democracy that America offers, my people in Bahrain are still suffering under a brutal dictatorship.
The situation in Bahrain represents a serious and ongoing violation of human rights that should be intolerable to the United States under any circumstances. However, the political instability created within Bahrain by the systematic, violent, and unceasing repression of its people is also a direct threat to US security interests in the Persian Gulf Region and globally. Improvements in human rights in Bahrain are directly linked to US security interests and should be pursued as a priority by the Biden Administration, including through multilateral institutions.
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16 MEPs Urge Bahrain to Release EU-Bahraini Dual Nationals and End Death Penalty Ahead of Brussels Meeting
25 January 2021 – The European Union should hold Bahrain to their human rights commitments by raising the case of European-Bahraini dual citizens and restore their moratorium on the death penalty, 16 MEPs have urged in an open letter delivered last Friday to EU High Representative Josep Borrell, ahead of his meeting with Bahrain’s Foreign Minister tomorrow.
Read the full letter here.
Danish-Bahraini Abdulhadi Al Khawaja and Swedish-Bahraini Sheikh Mohammed Habib Al Muqdad are serving life sentences for peacefully expressing their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association during Bahrain’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Along with other prisoners of conscience like Hassan Mushaima, they have been subjected to torture, mistreatment and systemic denial of medical care.
Since the suppression of the pro-democracy movement in 2011, Bahrain’s government has overseen a severe deterioration in the human rights situation in the country, including a dramatic rise in the use of the death penalty. Six individuals have been executed in Bahrain since 2017, five of which were condemned as arbitrary by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, in 2017 and 2019 respectively. 26 death row inmates currently face imminent execution, nearly half of whom were convicted on the basis of confessions allegedly extracted under torture in cases related to political unrest.
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Open letter to Danish Prime Minister to take immediate action to free Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja
Dear Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen,
We the undersigned, more than 100 organisations from around the world, are appealing for your assistance to secure the release of prominent human rights defender and dual Danish-Bahraini citizen Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja from prison in Bahrain, where he is serving a life sentence for his peaceful political and human rights activities in violation of his right to freedom of expression. As he completes the tenth year of his imprisonment, we appeal to you directly as head of the Government of Denmark to renew and strengthen efforts to ensure his immediate and unconditional release so he can be reunited with his family and receive much needed medical treatment and torture rehabilitation in Denmark.
An internationally-recognised human rights defender, Al-Khawaja is the co-founder of both the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), for which he was also the former President, and he worked as MENA Protection Coordinator for Front Line Defenders from 2008 until early 2011.
He was arrested on 9 April 2011 for his role in organising peaceful protests to defend people’s rights and to demand political reform during the popular movement which began in February 2011. Security forces violently arrested Al-Khawaja, as detailed in a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), published in November 2011 at the request of the Bahraini king. It says, “Immediately after the arrest, the detainee received a hard blow to the side of his face, which broke his jaw and knocked him to the ground. He was taken to the Ministry of Interior (MoI) clinic and then the Bahrain Defence Forces (BDF) Hospital where he had major jaw surgery for four broken bones in his face.” Al-Khawaja was subjected to additional severe physical, psychological and sexual torture in detention (as described in the BICI report, as Case No. 8.)
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Eight Irish TDs Call for Ireland to Address the Case of Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Mohamed Abbas
Four members of Dáil Éireann–Niall Collins TD, Brendan Howlin TD, Thomas Pringle TD, Joe O’Brien TD–put forward a number of questions to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney TD, concerning the case of Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Mohamed Abbas. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) welcomes the parliamentary questions and thanks these TDs for their continued advocacy against Bahrain’s human rights abuses.
Deputy Collins asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs “his views on a matter [the case of Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Mohamed Abbas]; and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
Deputy Howlin asked the Minister “if his attention has been drawn to the case of a person [Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Mohamed Abbas]; if this case has been raised with the Bahrain authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
Deputy Pringle asked, “Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has raised the case of a person [Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Mohamed Abbas] in Bahrain either multilaterally or bilaterally with Bahraini Government officials; and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
Deputy O’Brien asked, “the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the case of a person [Sheikh Zuhair Jasim Mohamed Abbas] who it is alleged has been detained without due process and tortured by the government of Bahrain; if he and his colleagues in the EU Foreign Affairs Council have raised this with Bahraini officials; and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
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