Switzerland, MENA Rights Group, May 12, 2025
MENA Rights Group, alongside 26 civil society organizations, calls on UN Human Rights Council member and observer states to urge Bahrain to release arbitrarily detained activists and death row inmates ahead of Eid al-Adha.
Re: Upcoming 59th Session of the Human Rights Council and Eid al-Adha
Ahead of the 59th session of the Human Rights Council (16 June – 11 July 2025), we are writing to you and your delegation regarding the continued detention of leading human rights defenders, bloggers, journalists, opposition and religious activists, and death row inmates who are at imminent risk of execution in Bahrain.
As Eid al-Adha approaches on 6 June 2025, when Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa is expected to issue further royal pardons, we strongly believe that your engagement will be critical in securing the release of those who remain arbitrarily detained in Bahrain.
The latest royal pardons were issued by Bahrain’s King for a total of 1,526 inmates on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr (marking the end of Ramadan) on 27 March 2025 and to mark Bahrain National Day on 15 December 2024. However, no political prisoners or human rights defenders were released through these pardons and were instead offered only conditional releases through the open prisons program, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD).
We have previously raised concerns about human rights defenders and leading opposition and political activists serving unjust life imprisonment sentences in Bahrain, including:
– Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, 64, is an award-winning human rights defender, prisoner of conscience and Bahraini-Danish national who has been arbitrarily detained since 2011. On 9 April 2025, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor stated that “he has been tortured, he has been stigmatised, and he has been cut off from his family” and urged the Danish Prime Minister to call for Al-Khawaja’s release with her Bahraini counterpart directly.
