Today, 10 December, as we celebrate International Human Rights Day, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) calls on governments in the Gulf region, neighboring countries and elsewhere in the world to free the many human rights defenders jailed across the region for their work.

We further ask them to guarantee that human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals, and free of restrictions including judicial harassment, travel bans, fines, systematic targeting, and de-legitimising their human rights work.

International Human Rights Defenders Day is also celebrated on 9 December. GCHR notes that this is the date of the third anniversary of the abduction of prominent Syrian human rights defenders Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Al-Khalil, Wa’el Hamada and Nazim Hammadi. There has been no concrete news since a group of armed men stormed into the office of the Violations Documentation Centre (VDC) in Syria on 9 December 2013. Likewise, there is also no news of human rights lawyer Khalil Ma’touq and his assistant, Mohamed Thatha, who were believed to have been arrested at a government-operated checkpoint in Damascus on 2 October 2012. There is also no news about digital rights activist Bassel Khartabil who was detained by military intelligence on 15 March 2012 and held incommunicado for eight months. He has not been heard from since 03 October 2015.

In Bahrain, GCHR’s Founding Directors Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Nabeel Rajab remain in jail. Al-Khawaja was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for his role in peaceful democracy protests, along with other human rights defenders including Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace. Rajab was arrested on 13 June 2016 for his human rights work, including for exercising his right to free expression on Twitter. He is due in court on 15 December 2016 and could face over ten years in prison, including for highlighting torture in Jaw prison and human rights violations in Yemen. Human rights defender Naji Fateel was sentenced on appeal on 29 May 2014 to 15 years in prison; and then on 25 January 2016, he was among 57 prisoners sentenced to additional 15-year terms for allegedly being involved in disturbances in Jaw prison in March 2015. Women’s rights defender, writer and blogger Ghada Jamsheer was jailed on 15 August 2016 for her tweets exposing corruption within the management of King Hamad Hospital. She has received a number of sentences amounting to several years in prison.

In Saudi Arabia, numerous human rights defenders remain in jail serving lengthy prison sentences, including a dozen members of the Civil and Political Rights Association in Saudi Arabia (ACPRA). Dr. Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani, a founding member of APCRA, was sentenced on 9 March 2013 to ten years in prison. In September 2015, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) maintained that the detention of human rights defenders including Dr. Al-Qahtani, Waleed Abu Al-Khair, Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamid, Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Khodr, Raif Badawi, Fadel Al-Manasef, Sulaiman Al-Rashudi, and Omar Al-Sa’id, was arbitrary and called for their immediate release. Yet they remain in prison. On 01 December 2016, Issa Al-Hamid, a founding member and former President of ACPRA, was sentenced to two more years in prison for his peaceful and legitimate human rights work in Saudi Arabia, after already being sentenced on 24 April to nine years in prison. He is still free on a bail.

In Iran, children’s and women’s rights defender Atena Daemi was arrested on 26 November 2016 and jailed, following an appeals court hearing on 28 September where her sentence for her human rights activities was reduced from 14 to seven years in prison. On 28 September 2016, Nargess Mohammadi, former Vice-President of the Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) and President of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Peace in Iran, was sentenced on appeal to 16 years in prison, including for “membership in the Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty” (known by the acronym LEGAM). Both women are being held in the notorious Evin Prison.

In the United Arab Emirates, academic Dr. Nasser Bin Ghaith remains in jail while the Federal Appeal Court considers his case. Following his arrest on 18 August 2015, Bin Ghaith faces several charges stemming from his peaceful criticism on Twitter of Egyptian and Emirati authorities, which could lead to decades in prison. While an amendment to the law passed in December 2016 allowed his case to be transferred from the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court, other human rights defenders remain in prison from previous cases, with no right to appeal. They include human rights lawyers Dr. Mohammed Al-Roken and Dr. Mohammed Al-Mansoori, sentenced to 10 years in jail on 2 July 2013 as part of a mass trial known as the UAE94 of 94 people who peacefully called for greater rights and freedoms, including the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

In Oman, three journalists of “Azamn” newspaper, Ibrahim Al-Maamari, Yousef Al-Haj, and Zaher Al-Abri await their appeals verdict on 12 December 2016. On 26 September 2016, Al-Maamari and Al-Haj were sentenced to three years in prison and Al-Abri to one year on charges related to the publication of a story about judicial corruption. “Azamn” newspaper was closed down. On 08 November 2016, writer, cinema critic and online activist Abdullah Habib was sentenced to three years in prison. His arrest in April 2016 and the trial are related to his opinions expressed on facebook.

In Kuwait, on 18 October 2016, the Appeal Court confirmed a three-month sentence with labour against human rights defender Abdulhakim Al-Fadhli. The sentence related to a demonstration in 2012 demanding the rights of the Bedoon community. On 20 September 2016, the judge of the Misdemeanors Appeal Court rejected Al-Fadhli’s appeal of a one-year sentence with labour for charges of gathering and participating in a peaceful demonstration and assembly. He is to be deported from the country following the sentence. Kuwaiti blogger Sara Al-Drees is facing five years in prison for a tweet. She was jailed on 25 September 2016 for several weeks but released on bail on 06 October. Her trial is ongoing and she’s under a travel ban.

These are just a few of the cases. Across the region, many other human rights defenders have been in and out of jail and subject to reprisals for their human rights work.

As we mark International Human Rights Day on 10 December and International Human Rights Defenders Day on 9 December, GCHR calls on governments in the Gulf region and neighbouring countries to free all human rights defenders jailed in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, to unconditionally drop the charges against them and to end reprisals against those engaged in peaceful human rights work. We strongly support efforts by the UN and European Union to protect human rights defenders, including those who suffer reprisals for their engagement with the UN and EU.

Read the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/Declaration.aspx 

Photo credit: Courtesy of the UN.