Geneva, 13 March 2014– The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) launched its Annual Report at a side meeting of the 25th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council today. Co-Directors Khalid Ibrahim and Maryam Al-Khawaja introduced the report to a meeting of States parties and NGOs. The event was sponsored by its partner organisation, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and introduced by its Geneva office director Jeremie Smith.
Khalid Ibrahim spoke about the continuing remit for the GCHR in relation to the six GCC countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Syria. He spoke about how the struggle continues to focus the attention of the international community on the significant rights violations in the region. Khalid Ibrahim reminded the meeting of how the inherent problems in this battle were highlighted in the first place by one of the GCHR co-founders, Nabeel Rajab. Rajab had said in 2011 that : “Due to the double standards of a regional conflict of interest, this region has been ignored by western powers and that’s why we are ready to shed light on it.”
The GCHR now runs an important training programme for human rights defenders in the region with specialist programmes on the use of UN mechanisms, the use of social media, the protection of data, transitional justice and the documentation of human rights violations. It has also conducted a series of missions to countries including UAE, Yemen, Kuwait documenting the situation of human rights defenders and independent journalists and reporting on the trial of the UAE 94. It has produced a detailed study of the incidence of the torture of human rights defenders in Oman.
Maryam Al-Khawaja talked about the particular challenges facing activists in Bahrain on a daily basis. She set out the how patterns of abuse in one country are tested and then used across the region by other repressive regimes in a “test and go ” strategy. She highlighted the use of judicial attack on activists through the use of charges that are not recognised as crimes by international standards and the widespread use of overly broad definitions of terrorism to smear those who dare to protest.
Jeremie Smith rounded off the meeting by highlighting the scale and depth of the problem for human rights defenders in the region; setting out as an example how in Saudi Arabia, defenders are sent to jail simply for cooperating with the UN Human Rights Council.
Copies of the annual report are available from info@gchr.org
This Report is also available on line HERE
