ADHRB Weekly Newsletter #417
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** Bahrain and the US
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** Bi-partisan Group of US Senators Send Letter to Secretary Blinken Decrying Bahrain’s “Violent, Systemic Repression”
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A bi-partisan group of United States senators has sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing concern over the government of Bahrain’s terrible human rights record and asking for details about how the Biden Administration plans to press for an end to the violent repression of the Bahraini people by their own government.
The Senators signing the letter are Ron Wyden, Marco Rubio, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Patrick Leahy, Jeff Merkley, and Bernie Sanders.
“Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain profoundly thanks the Senators for their commitment to holding the Government of Bahrain accountable for its systemic violation of human rights. The Government of Bahrain is an egregious, persistent, and blatant violator of the rights of its citizens on nearly every level,” said Husain Abdulla, Executive Director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. “We need to know what the Biden-Harris Administration is doing to live up to its commitment to put human rights at the center of US Foreign policy. Bahrain is a test case for the Administration’s new policies and the world is watching.”
The Senators cite a long list of human rights abuses perpetrated by the Government of Bahrain including, “arbitrary detention, torture, cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners, restrictions on freedom of the press, interference with peaceful assembly, and restrictions on political participation and religious practice.”
Read the full article here ([link removed])
** Bahrain
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** What are the Bahraini authorities waiting for to release Abduljalil Al-Singace?
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Aged 59 and serving a life sentence, Al-Singace has been on hunger strike since 8 July and has lost more than 20 kilos. His health in now in great danger.
RSF has learned that he is currently consuming only water and milk powder dissolved in water. As a result, his blood sugar level is dangerously low, and his blood pressure and white blood cell count have also dropped drastically. He was transferred to the Kanoo medical centre on 30 July.
Al-Singace is protesting against constant harassment by his prison guards, who eavesdrop on his phone calls with his family, often disconnect his phone line without any warning, keep him under constant surveillance in his cell, and prevent him from sleeping.
The research work he had been doing in prison was also confiscated from him without any justification. In 2015, he went on hunger strike for more than 300 days in protest against the way he was being mistreated.
In March, on the tenth anniversary of his arrest, RSF called on the authorities to release him because his health has worsened steadily in prison. He is not getting appropriate medical care for muscular problems that are the result of a polio attack in his youth, and he has difficulty walking because the rubber cushions on his crutches have worn down.
In a written response to RSF, the Bahraini government claimed that Al-Singace was receiving “all necessary healthcare and treatment,” and that it was “proud of its human rights record.”
Read the full article here ([link removed])
** Profile in Persecution
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** Alaa Mansoor Ansaif
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Alaa Mansoor Ansaif was a 17-year-old student studying electrical engineering when he was warrantlessly arrested by officers in civilian clothing in a house raid. He was then forcibly disappeared, subjected to physical and psychological torture, and forced to sign a confession. He is currently held at Jau Prison where he is being subjected to severe medical negligence.
On 4 August 2013, at 10:35 a.m., a large number of masked intelligence agents dressed in civilian clothing stormed Alaa’s house, without any warning. The intelligence agents tampered with the contents of the house and confiscated three cameras, a laptop, and a phone. In addition, they arrested Alaa without a warrant and without even stating the reason for the arrest.
After his arrest, Alaa was taken to the CID and forcibly disappeared. On 7 August 2013, he called his family only for three seconds telling them not to worry. After that, Alaa called on 12 August after midnight only to tell his family that he was fine. He did not disclose his whereabouts in both calls. Only until 13 August was Alaa able to inform his parents that he is held in Dry Dock Detention Center, where he had been transferred the day before, and he also told them they would be able to visit him on 15 August.
During the investigation, CID officers tortured Alaa as they subjected him to severe beatings causing his jaw to break. In addition, he suffered severe bruising and redness on his face and neck leaving him unable to feel his face. He was also subjected to psychological torture with the officers insulting his Shia sect and religious beliefs. As a result of the torture endured, Alaa was forced to sign a pre-prepared confession. He was transferred to Al-Rifaa police station, where he remained until the signs of torture healed, and then was presented before the PPO. During the entire period of investigation, Alaa was not allowed to make contact with his lawyer, and his lawyer was not allowed to be present during interrogations.
Read the full article here ([link removed])
** GCC in the Wire
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**
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- Opinion: Biden is doubling down on Trump's mistake of arms deals with this rogue regime ([link removed]) (The Washington Post)
Mohamad Bazzi is a journalism professor and director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He is also a non-resident fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now. In April, the Biden administration quietly approved $23 billion in weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates, including of F-35 jets and armed drones. This came after President Biden and his top aides announced, with great fanfare in their early weeks in office, that they would review a series of large arms deals to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which were rushed through in the final months of the Trump administration.
- Trudeau's test: Taking stock of a foreign policy legacy ([link removed]) (The Interpreter)
A row with Saudi Arabia began in 2018 when the Canadian embassy tweeted out support for arrested women’s activists. Saudi Arabia responded by announcing it would no longer buy Canadian wheat and barley, that all flights to Canada would cease, and that Canada’s envoy to Riyadh had been expelled. Following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and human rights violations in Yemen, Canada placed a moratorium on exports to Saudi Arabia. Yet Canadian arms companies sold almost twice the amount of military equipment to Saudi Arabia in 2019 than in 2018.
- Human rights advocates decry Apple, Google decision to pull Navalny app as Russia voting begins ([link removed]) (The Seattle Times)
Apple and Google removed an opposition voting app from their online stores Friday just as balloting began in Russia’s parliamentary election, bowing to pressure from President Vladimir Putin’s censorship office in a move digital rights activists blasted as Silicon Valley’s latest act of capitulation to an authoritarian government.
- Cameroonian migrants deported from UAE face conflict or exile ([link removed]) (Thomas Reuters Foundation News)
Just months ago, Cameroonian migrant Wilfred Christopher had a home and stable job as a pastry chef in Abu Dhabi. Now, the 26-year-old fears for his life after authorities in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) deported him to Cameroon – where his home region is mired in conflict. "Sometimes there's fighting, there are stray bullets. Now they said if you go out (after curfew), they might shoot you," Christopher said by phone from the town of Tiko in Cameroon's South West region, referring to fighting between Anglophone separatists and government forces.
- Biden pulls punches on rights abusers ([link removed]) (Politico)
President Joe Biden has repeatedly promised to prioritize human rights, saying the cause “must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery.” His top aides have echoed such pledges, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that the Biden administration “will stand against human rights abuses wherever they occur, regardless of whether the perpetrators are adversaries or partners.”
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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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