Articles by Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

Children’s rights defender Atena Daemi released from Iran’s notorious Evin prison
Atena Daemi was released on 15 February, after serving 16 months of her 14-year sentence in Evin prison.

Rights groups and cartoonists ask Iranian President Rouhani to help free artist Atena Farghadani
Over 40 human rights groups and more than 75 international cartoonists are calling for leniency for Atena Farghadani, an Iranian cartoonist currently wrongfully jailed.

UN counter-extremism initiatives must not infringe on free expression rights
Civil society groups express concern over the potential for overbroad anti-extremism practices to limit free expression

On the fate of eleven members of targeted Saudi civil rights group
The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association was established in 2009 to promote civil and political rights and to respond to increased arrests following the second Gulf war. The Saudi government, intent on shutting it down, has been systematically targeting members.

Bahrain must end harassment of human rights defender Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman
IFEX members call on the Government of Bahrain to stop the judicial harassment of Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman, and to allow human rights defenders to exercise their right to freedom of expression.

Bahraini rights defender Mohammad Al-Maskati faces prison if sentence upheld
Al-Maskati is the founder and former president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), and is currently a digital security consultant at Front Line Defenders. On 31 December 2014, the Lower Criminal Court in Bahrain sentenced him to six months in prison but he remained free on bail of 100 BHD until the appeal.

Call for release of Buddhist monk and prominent Vietnamese dissident Thich Quang Do
A renowned spiritual leader, scholar, dissident and many-times Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Thich Quang Do, 87, has spent more than three decades in detention in Vietnam for his peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, democracy and human rights.

European Parliament urges Bahrain to lift Nabeel Rajab’s travel ban and drop charges against him
On 19 November 2015, Member of the European Parliament Mr. Pier Antonio Panzeri, together with 80 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), issued a letter to Bahrain’s King Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, calling on the Bahraini government to immediately lift the travel ban and drop all charges against human rights defender Nabeel Rajab.