A Bahraini girl holds up a placard with a portrait of jailed human rights activist Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja, that reads in Arabic “Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, will and determination, hunger strike”, during an anti-government protest in the village of Jannusan, 5 September 2014, MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP via Getty Images IFEX joins civil society organisations from around the world in urging the UN, governments, and the diplomatic community to urgently call on Bahraini authorities to release human rights defender Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja.
To: United Nations Secretary General and diplomatic Missions
United Nations Special Rapporteurs/Targeted Governments
Re: Urgent call to release Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja on his 60
th birthday and 10
New F1 boss urged to launch independent inquiry into Bahrain… omct.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from omct.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Published date: 14 February 2021 10:26 UTC | Last update: 1 month 1 week ago
The sense of optimism that spurred on demonstrators on 14 February 2011 has been obliterated as foreign governments continue to acquiesce to a decade-long crackdown
In his recent book
A Promised Land, former US president Barack Obama reflects on his time as leader of the free world at a moment when the Middle East was erupting in a cascade of demonstrations that would come to be known as the Arab Spring.
In the book, Obama discusses how he tried to ease Hosni Mubarak out of Egypt as the 2011 uprisings seemed poised to topple his administration, despite the autocrat s well-established relationship with the US. After Mubarak s removal, Obama notes that he was cautiously optimistic about the country s future.
Ahead of the 10th anniversary of Arab Spring demonstrations in Bahrain, the authorities have increasingly sought to erase memories of the mass protests that threatened the Sunni monarchy’s grip on power.
Dissent persists in the tiny kingdom with a majority-Shiite population off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. Police have been out in force in city streets over the past week, residents said, taking no chances on renewed demonstration.
A Web site for the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, commissioned by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, that had hosted an independent report on the 2011 protests and the government crackdown