Protecting Human Rights Defenders and Prisoners of Conscience in Bahrain
13 May 2022
Since 2017, the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has hosted an annual Scholars at Risk Student Advocacy Seminar. As part of the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network, students on this programme create and execute advocacy campaigns aimed at supporting threatened and imprisoned scholars globally.
Throughout the year-long programme, students organise and lead activities such as collecting signatures for petittions, running awareness drives, and hosting poetry readings, panel discussions, and various other events aimed at shedding light on the cases they are advocating for and garnering support for their cause. The 2021/22 student advocacy group campaigned for the release of Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace, a scholar and human rights defender imprisoned in Bahrain since March 2011 for participating in a pro-democracy protest.
Explore the activities of the student advocacy seminar
You can view a recording of the event here:
This event was organised in honour of Dr Al-Singace, and in solidarity with all detained human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists in Bahrain. For the panel discussion, the HRLC was joined by:
- Khalid Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights
- Sue Willman, Senior Consultant at Deighton Pierce Glynn and founder of the King's Legal Clinic (King's College London)
- Josie Thum, Research and Policy Associate at the Bahrain Institute for Research and Democracy (BIRD).
Support the campaign for Dr Al-Singace's release
About the Speakers
Khalid Ibrahim is the Executive Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights in charge of management, programme development, fundraising and training. He is an Iraqi human rights defender with decades of experience in the human rights field, including more than ten years in Dublin with Frontline Defenders, where he worked on human rights issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. A PhD researcher in digital protection for human rights defenders at Trinity College Dublin, Khalid is a certified specialist in the field of human rights with an interest in the use of new technologies to enhance the protection of human rights in the MENA region.
Sue Willman is a senior consultant and former Deighton Pierce Glynn (DPG) partner with over 30 years’ experience of innovative public interest litigation and collaboration with non-profit organisations and campaigners. Sue established Pierce Glynn’s public law and human rights law team, which has an impressive reputation, reflected in the Legal 500 and Chambers Directory rankings for both firms. In recent years, she has led DPG’s international human rights work. She also works parttime at King’s College where she has established a Human Rights and Environment Legal Clinic, the first in the UK.
Josie Thum is a Research and Policy Associate at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD). Josie is the Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf and drafted their recent report "The Cost of Repression" on secret UK government funding to the Gulf. Prior to her role with BIRD, Josie was Advocacy Manager at the child rights NGO, Humanium, handled cases for the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention as part of a legal clinic and worked in fundraising at Amnesty International.