Forthe second time since 2013, the United Nations (UN) Working Group on ArbitraryDetention (WGAD) has issued an Opinion regarding the legality of the detentionof Mr. Nabeel Rajab under international human rights law. In its secondopinion, the WGAD held that the detention was not only arbitrary but alsodiscriminatory. The 127 signatory human rights groups welcome this landmarkopinion, made public on 13 August 2018, recognising the role played by humanrights defenders in society and the need to protect them. We call upon theBahraini Government to immediately release Nabeel Rajab in accordance with thislatest request.

In its Opinion (A/HRC/WGAD/2018/13), the WGAD consideredthat the detention of Mr. Nabeel Rajab contravenes Articles 2, 3, 7, 9,10, 11, 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Articles 2,9, 10, 14, 18, 19 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights, ratified by Bahrain in 2006. The WGAD requested the Government ofBahrain to “release Mr. Rajab immediately and accord him an enforceable rightto compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.”

This constitutes alandmark opinion as it recognises that the detention of Mr. Nabeel Rajab –President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Founding Director ofthe Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), Deputy Secretary General of FIDH and amember of the Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa AdvisoryCommittee – is arbitrary and in violation of international law, as it resultsfrom his exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression as well asfreedom of thought and conscience, and furthermore constitutes “discriminationbased on political or other opinion, as well as on his status as a human rightsdefender.” Mr. Nabeel Rajab’s detention has therefore been found arbitraryunder both categories II and V as defined by the WGAD.

Mr. Nabeel Rajab wasarrested on 13 June 2016 and has been detained since then by the Bahrainiauthorities on several freedom of expression-related charges that inherentlyviolate his basic human rights. On 15 January 2018, the Court of Cassationupheld his two-year prison sentence, convicting him of “spreading false newsand rumors about the internal situation in the Kingdom, which undermines stateprestige and status” – in reference to television interviews he gave in 2015and 2016. Most recently on 5 June 2018, the Manama Appeals Court upheld hisfive years’ imprisonment sentence for “disseminating false rumors in time ofwar”; “offending a foreign country” – in this case Saudi Arabia; and for“insulting a statutory body”, in reference to comments made on Twitter in March2015 regarding alleged torture in Jaw prison and criticising the killing ofcivilians in the Yemen conflict by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. The Twittercase will next be heard by the Court of Cassation, the final opportunity forthe authorities to acquit him.

The WGAD underlinedthat “the penalisation of a media outlet, publishers or journalists solely forbeing critical of the government or the political social system espoused by thegovernment can never be considered to be a necessary restriction of freedom ofexpression,” and emphasised that “no such trial of Mr. Rajab should have takenplace or take place in the future.” It added that the WGAD “cannot help butnotice that Mr. Rajab’s political views and convictions are clearly at thecentre of the present case and that the authorities have displayed an attitudetowards him that can only be characterised as discriminatory.” The WGAD addedthat several cases concerning Bahrain had already been brought before it in thepast five years, in which WGAD “has found the Government to be in violation ofits human rights obligations.” WGAD added that “under certain circumstances,widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty inviolation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes againsthumanity.”

Indeed, the list ofthose detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression and opinionin Bahrain is long and includes several prominent human rights defenders,notably Mr. AbdulhadiAl-Khawaja, Dr. AbduljalilAl-Singace and Mr. Naji Fateel– whom the WGAD previously mentioned in communications to the Bahrainiauthorities.

Our organisationsrecall that this is the second time the WGAD has issued an Opinion regardingMr. Nabeel Rajab. In its Opinion A/HRC/WGAD/2013/12 adopted in December2013, the WGAD already classified Mr. Nabeel Rajab’s detention as arbitrary asit resulted from his exercise of his universally recognised human rights andbecause his right to a fair trial had not been guaranteed (arbitrary detentionunder categories II and III as defined by the WGAD).The fact that over fouryears have passed since that opinion was issued, with no remedial action andwhile Bahrain has continued to open new prosecutions against him and others,punishing expression of critical views, demonstrates the government’s patternof disdain for international human rights bodies.

To conclude, ourorganisations urge the Bahrain authorities to follow up on the WGAD’s requestto conduct a country visit to Bahrain and to respect the WGAD’s opinion, byimmediately and unconditionally releasing Mr. Nabeel Rajab, and dropping allcharges against him. In addition, we urge the authorities to release all otherhuman rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Bahrain and to guarantee in allcircumstances their physical and psychological health.

This statement isendorsed by the following organisations:

1- ACAT Germany –Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture
2- ACAT Luxembourg
3- Access Now
4- Acción Ecológica (Ecuador)
5- Americans for Human Rights and Democracy in Bahrain – ADHRB
6- Amman Center for Human Rights Studies – ACHRS (Jordania)
7- Amnesty International
8- Anti-Discrimination Center « Memorial » (Russia)
9- Arabic Network for Human Rights Information – ANHRI (Egypt)
10- Arab Penal Reform Organisation (Egypt)
11- Armanshahr / OPEN Asia (Afghanistan)
12- ARTICLE 19
13- Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos - APRODEH (Peru)
14- Association for Defense of Human Rights – ADHR
15- Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression – AFTE (Egypt)
16- Association marocaine des droits humains - AMDH
17- Bahrain Center for Human Rights
18- Bahrain Forum for Human Rights
19- Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy – BIRD
20- Bahrain Interfaith
21- Cairo Institute for Human Rights – CIHRS
22- CARAM Asia (Malaysia)
23- Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)
24- Center for Constitutional Rights (USA)
25- Center for Prisoners’ Rights (Japan)
26- Centre libanais pour les droits humains - CLDH
27- Centro de Capacitación Social de Panama
28- Centro de Derechos y Desarrollo – CEDAL (Peru)
29- Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales – CELS (Argentina)
30- Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos – Perú EQUIDAD
31- Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos – CENIDH (Nicaragua)
32- Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos – CALDH (Guatemala)
33- Citizen Watch (Russia)
34- CIVICUS : World Alliance for Citizen Participation
35- Civil Society Institute – CSI (Armenia)
36- Colectivo de Abogados « José Alvear Restrepo » (Colombia)
37- Collectif des familles de disparu(e)s en Algérie - CFDA
38- Comisión de Derechos Humanos de El Salvador – CDHES
39- Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos – CEDHU (Ecuador)
40- Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (Costa Rica)
41- Comité de Acción Jurídica – CAJ (Argentina)
42- Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – CPDH (Colombia)
43- Committee for the Respect of Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia - CRLDHT
44- Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative – CHRI (India)
45- Corporación de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos del Pueblo – CODEPU(Chile)
46- Dutch League for Human Rights - LvRM
47- European Center for Democracy and Human Rights – ECDHR (Bahrain)
48- FEMED – Fédération euro-méditerranéenne contre les disparitions forcées
49- FIDH, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders
50- Finnish League for Human Rights
51- Foundation for Human Rights Initiative – FHRI (Uganda)
52- Front Line Defenders
53- Fundación Regional de Asesoría en Derechos Humanos – INREDH (Ecuador)
54- Groupe LOTUS (DRC)

55- Gulf Center forHuman Rights
56- Human Rights Association – IHD (Turkey)
57- Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (Egypt)
58- Human Rights Center – HRIDC (Georgia)
59- Human Rights Center « Memorial » (Russia)
60- Human Rights Center « Viasna » (Belarus)
61- Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
62- Human Rights Foundation of Turkey
63- Human Rights in China
64- Human Rights Mouvement « Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan »
65- Human Rights Sentinel (Ireland)
66- Human Rights Watch
67- I’lam – Arab Center for Media Freedom, Development and Research
68- IFEX
69- IFoX Turkey – Initiative for Freedom of Expression
70- Index on Censorship
71- International Human Rights Organisation « Club des coeursardents » (Uzbekistan)
72- International Legal Initiative – ILI (Kazakhstan)
73- Internet Law Reform Dialogue – iLaw (Thaïland)
74- Institut Alternatives et Initiatives Citoyennes pour la GouvernanceDémocratique – I-AICGD (RDC)
75- Instituto Latinoamericano para una Sociedad y Derecho Alternativos – ILSA(Colombia)
76- Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte (Allemagne)
77- International Service for Human Rights – ISHR
78- Iraqi Al-Amal Association
79- Jousor Yemen Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Response

80- Justice for Iran
81- Justiça Global (Brasil)
82- Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
83- Latvian Human Rights Committee
84- Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
85- League for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran
86- League for the Defense of Human Rights – LADO Romania
87- Legal Clinic « Adilet » (Kyrgyzstan)
88- Liga lidských práv (Czech Republic)
89- Ligue burundaise des droits de l’Homme - ITEKA (Burundi)
90- Ligue des droits de l’Homme (Belgique)
91- Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l’Homme
92- Ligue sénégalaise des droits humains – LSDH
93- Ligue tchadienne des droits de l’Homme – LTDH
94- Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’Homme – LTDH
95- MADA – Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedom
96- Maharat Foundation (Lebanon)
97- Maison des droits de l’Homme du Cameroun - MDHC
98- Maldivian Democracy Network
99- MARCH Lebanon
100- Media Association for Peace – MAP (Lebanon)
101- MENA Monitoring Group
102- Metro Center for Defending Journalists’ Rights (Iraqi Kurdistan)
103- Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers - International Association ofPeople’s Lawyers
104- Movimento Nacional de Direitos Humanos - MNDH (Brasil)
105- Mwatana Organisation for Human Rights (Yemen)
106- Norwegian PEN
107- Odhikar (Bangladesh)
108- Pakistan Press Foundation
109- PEN America
110- PEN Canada
111- PEN International
112- Promo-LEX (Moldova)
113- Public Foundation – Human Rights Center « Kylym Shamy »(Kyrgyzstan)
114- RAFTO Foundation for Human Rights
115- Réseau Doustourna (Tunisia)
116- SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights
117- Scholars at Risk
118- Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights – SAF (Yemen)
119- Suara Rakyat Malaysia - SUARAM
120- Taïwan Association for Human Rights – TAHR
121- Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights – FTDES
122- Vietnam Committee for Human Rights
123- Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
124- World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers – WAN-IFRA
125- World Organisation Against Torture - OMCT,  in the framework of theObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
126- Yemen Organisation for Defending Rights and Democratic Freedoms
127- Zambia Council for Social Development – ZCSD

For more information,please contact:

·        FIDH: Maryna Chebat, [email protected], +33 6 48 05 9157, Twitter: @MS_Chebat

·        OMCT: Delphine Reculeau, [email protected], +41 228 09 49 39

·        GCHR: Khalid Ibrahim, [email protected], +961 70 15 95 52