ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #413
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** Bahrain
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** ADHRB Condemn the NIHR’s Whitewashing of Human Rights Abuses in Bahrain
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The National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR) is portrayed as an independent entity charged with promoting and protecting human rights in Bahrain. However, the NIHR consistently demonstrates ([link removed]) its involvement in concealing human rights abuses committed by the Bahraini authorities, and its role in further reinforcing the culture of impunity. Political prisoners, human rights defenders, activists, and opponents of the government continue to be systematically targeted by Bahraini authorities in an attempt to silence all dissidence in the country. In response, the NIHR releases ([link removed]) statements asserting that “the Kingdom of Bahrain has become a model for political reform, democracy, respect for human rights and public freedoms, and adherence to the rule of law and constitutional institutions.” Moreover, in December 2020, the
NIHR claimed ([link removed]) that “the Kingdom of Bahrain’s interest in human rights and commitment to promoting and protecting them is genuine, constant and continuous.” These statements are in contradiction to the reality of the situation and demonstrate how the NIHR fails to fulfill its mandate in impartially promoting human rights in Bahrain.

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** Profile in Persecution
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** Ahmed Ali Yusuf
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Ahmed Ali Yusuf was a 19-year-old university student when he was arrested without a warrant. Since his arrest, Ahmed has been subjected to both physical and psychological torture. He is currently held at Jau Prison where he is being subjected to severe medical negligence, degrading treatment and torture, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.On 9 February 2017, Ahmed was warrantlessly arrested at sea during the Ministry of Interior operation to arrest two fugitive political prisoners, one of whom was Reda AlGhasra, which resulted in the killing of three individuals and the wounding of others. As a result, Ahmed’s foot was wounded by live bullets, an injury he still suffers from. Prior to the arrest, Ahmed’s family home was repeatedly subjected to raids and searches. In these raids, some personal belongings were confiscated. Ahmed’s family was aware that their son was being pursued; however, they did not understand the reasons behind the raids as the Bahraini forces failed to present them
with any papers or provide them with any reasons. After the arrest, the Ministry of Interior published the reasons behind the arrest, maintaining that Ahmed was accused of smuggling convicts and transporting weapons and explosives.After his arrest, Ahmed was forcibly disappeared for 40 days in Building 15 at Jau Prison. After 40 days, Ahmed called his family complaining about the torture he had been subjected to in order to make confessions. Ahmed suffered different kinds of torture, including harassment, beatings in sensitive and genital areas, electrocution, being chained by his legs, hands, and neck, being placed in a small room with cold air conditioning, and psychological torture. Under this torture, and with the forced absence of his lawyer throughout the interrogation, Ahmed confessed to the charges attributed to him.

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** GCC in the Wire
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- Phones of nine Bahraini activists found to have been hacked with NSO spyware ([link removed]) (The Guardian)
The mobile phones of nine Bahraini activists, including two who were granted asylum protection and are now living in London, were hacked between June 2020 and February 2021 using NSO Group spyware, according to new findings by researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. A report due to be released on Tuesday will reveal that the hacked activists, some of whose phones were being monitored by Citizen Lab researchers at the time they were hacked, include three members of Waad, a secular leftwing political group that was suspended in 2017 amid a crackdown on peaceful dissent in Bahrain.

- Yemen Victims Push for War Crimes Investigation ([link removed]) (The Wall Street Journal)
Lawyers for survivors and families of people killed in Yemen’s civil war have filed evidence to the International Criminal Court in an attempt to trigger a formal investigation into alleged war crimes by military forces led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the U.S. The representatives called on the court’s prosecutor to investigate raids by the Saudi-led ruling coalition, including ones that hit a school bus in 2018 and a funeral gathering in 2016, and the alleged torture and murder of civilians in southern Yemen by Colombian nationals under contract to the United Arab Emirates, another leader of the ruling coalition.

- Repression Without Borders: Authoritarian leaders have taken their repressive tactics global ([link removed]) (The New York Times)
Smiting foes wherever they may be has a firm place in mythology, literature and history. The meddling Greek gods. James Bond’s license to kill. Joseph Stalin’s hit man who finally caught up with Leon Trotsky in Mexico City. Given this legacy, it is fair to ask why human rights organizations are now raising an alarm about authoritarian leaders who hunt down dissidents far from their borders. The reason is that the scope, scale and impunity of transnational repression by a new breed of strongmen — intimidating, detaining, assaulting, kidnapping, deporting or assassinating exiled critics — have grown exponentially with globalization, digital connectedness and new methods of surveillance. Some of the more flagrant examples are well known: the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul and Russia’s use of lethal toxins to murder one former spy, Alexander Litvinenko, and attempt to murder another, Sergei Skripal. Neither
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia nor President Vladimir Putin of Russia made any effort to justify or rationalize the hits; they simply denied personal responsibility.
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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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