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The UK's Relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain
House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee The UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain Fifth Report of Session 2013–14 Volume II Additional written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be published 12 November 2013 Published on 22 November 2013 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited The Foreign Affairs Committee The Foreign Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated agencies. Current membership Rt Hon Richard Ottaway (Conservative, Croydon South) (Chair) Mr John Baron (Conservative, Basildon and Billericay) Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell (Liberal Democrat, North East Fife) Rt Hon Ann Clwyd (Labour, Cynon Valley) Mike Gapes (Labour/Co-op, Ilford South) Mark Hendrick (Labour/Co-op, Preston) Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) Andrew Rosindell (Conservative, Romford) Mr Frank Roy (Labour, Motherwell and Wishaw) Rt Hon Sir John Stanley (Conservative, Tonbridge and Malling) Rory Stewart (Conservative, Penrith and The Border) The following Members were also members of the Committee during the parliament: Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth (Labour, Coventry North East) Emma Reynolds (Labour, Wolverhampton North East) Mr Dave Watts (Labour, St Helens North) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including news items) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/facom. -
United Arab Emirates 2013 Human Rights Report
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven semiautonomous emirates with a resident population of approximately 9.2 million, of whom an estimated 11.5 percent are citizens. The rulers of the seven emirates constitute the Federal Supreme Council, the country’s highest legislative and executive body. The council selects a president and a vice president from its membership, and the president appoints the prime minister and cabinet. In 2009 the council selected Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al- Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi Emirate, to a second five-year term as president. The emirates are under patriarchal rule with political allegiance defined by loyalty to tribal leaders, leaders of the individual emirates, and leaders of the federation. There are limited democratically elected institutions, but no political parties. A limited appointed electorate participates in periodic elections for the Federal National Council (FNC), a consultative body that can examine, review, and recommend changes to legislation, consisting of 40 representatives allocated proportionally to each emirate based on population. In 2011 the appointed electorate of approximately 129,000 citizens elected 20 FNC members, and the rulers of the individual emirates appointed the other 20. Citizens can express their concerns directly to their leaders through traditional consultative mechanisms such as the open majlis (forum). Topics of legislation can also emerge through discussions and debates in the FNC. While authorities maintained effective control over the security forces, there were some media reports of human rights abuses by police. The three most significant human rights problems were citizens’ inability to change their government; limitations on citizens’ civil liberties (including the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and internet use); and arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, and lengthy pretrial detentions. -
An Investigation of E-Government Adoption in Bahrain and Evaluate the Key Determining Factors for Strategic Advantage Ali Mohame
An Investigation of e-Government Adoption in Bahrain and Evaluate the key Determining Factors for Strategic Advantage Ali Mohamed Abbas Kamali http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9438-4062 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements of London South Bank University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2018 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my father Mohamed Abbas Kamali and my mother Sakina Mohamed Gulom, for their support and encouragement morally. To my brothers and sisters for their unlimited support and encouragement. To my wife Khayria Mukhtar Mohamed, for her support and motivation throughout the PhD journey. I DECLARATION I declare that the ideas, results, analysis, findings and conclusions reported in this thesis are entirely my own efforts, except where otherwise acknowledged. I also declare that this work is original and has not been previously submitted for any degree award. Many researchers conducted in the field of e-Government services according to literature studies, but this work is totally different because the original idea and work proposed by myself along with my supervisory team. January, 2018 II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to who helped and supported me during my PhD. I am greatly indebted to my main supervisor Professor Shushma Patel (Interim Dean of Engineering and Professor of Information Systems) for her guidance and support, valuable advice, and perceptive suggestions throughout the duration of research and writing-up process for my PhD. I would also like to extend my appreciation to my second supervisor Professor Amare Desta (Professor of Information and Knowledge Management) for his support throughout my Ph.D. -
In Colonial Bahrain: Beyond the Sunni / Shia Divide
THREATS TO BRITISH “PROTECTIONISM” IN COLONIAL BAHRAIN: BEYOND THE SUNNI / SHIA DIVIDE A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arab Studies By Sarah E. A. Kaiksow, M.St. Washington, D.C. April 24, 2009 I would like to thank Dr. Judith Tucker and Dr. Sara Scalenghe for inspiration and encouragement. ii Copyright 2009 by Sarah E. A. Kaiksow All Rights Reserved iii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 1 Research Focus 2 Periodization 7 Archives 9 II. Background 12 The al-Khalifa and the British 12 Economy & Society of an island thoroughfare 17 Trade, pearls, date gardens, fish, and fresh water springs 17 Baharna, Huwala, Persians, Najdis, Thattia Bhattias, and Jews 20 III. Threats on the Ground: Saud-Wahabis in the Nineteenth Century 24 Uncertain allies (1830-1831) 24 First interventions (1850-1850) 26 Saud-Wahabis, Persia, and the Ottomans (1860-1862) 29 Distinctive registers 33 A new role for Britain (circa 1920) 34 The case for internal “reform” (1920-1923) 36 The “Najdi” crisis (April, 1923) 44 Debating the threats (May, 1923) 48 Forced succession (May 26, 1923) 50 Pearling industry and reforms (1915-1923) 52 Resistance to colonial reform (June – September, 1923) 55 Dawasir Exodus (October, 1923) 59 Consolidating the state (1926-1930) 61 IV. Persia and State Consolidation in the Twentieth Century 64 V. Conclusion 66 Bibliography 75 iv I. Introduction In the early months of 1923, the Under Secretary -
Gulf States Accused of Co-Ordinated Crackdown on Dissent | World
Gulf states accused of co-ordinated crackdown on dissent UAE's refusal to grant entry to an LSE academic and two Bahraini journalists may stem from security deal agreed last year Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 February 2013 17.16 GMT Saudi Arabia led a GCC intervention force in the suppression of protests in Bahrain in March 2011, with a UAE contingent also taking part. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Nervous Gulf states appear to be co-ordinating a crackdown on critics in the media and academic world as well as on political activists who challenge the status quo and protest about human rights abuses. Two leading Bahraini journalists were blocked from entering the United Arab Emirates on Monday for unspecified reasons, just days after the UAE refused entry to Kristian Ulrichsen, of the London School of Economics, who was scheduled to speak about Bahrain at a conference on the Arab spring, which has unsettled all the region's conservative monarchies. Mansour al-Jamri, editor of the Bahraini newspaper al-Wasat, was refused entry at Dubai international airport along with his wife, Reem Khalifa, an Associated Press correspondent. Jamri had been due to attend a conference on newspapers but believes the ban stems from a security deal agreed by the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) members last year. "The ban clearly has nothing to do with the conference," he told the Guardian . "But we were told it was a decision from the top." The contents of the pact remain secret but it includes a shared database. -
Weaponizing Tear Gas: Bahrain’S Unprecedented Use of Toxic Chemical Agents Against Civilians
Physicians for Human Rights Weaponizing Tear Gas: Bahrain’s Unprecedented Use of Toxic Chemical Agents Against Civilians August 2012 physiciansforhumanrights.org About Physicians for Human Rights Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) uses medicine and science to investigate and expose human rights violations. We work to prevent rights abuses by seeking justice and holding offenders accountable. Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries, including on: 1987 — Use of toxic chemical agents in South Korea 1988 — Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds 1988 — Use of toxic chemical agents in West Bank and the Gaza Strip 1989 — Use of chemical warfare agents in Soviet Georgia 1996 — Exhumation of mass graves in the Balkans 1996 — Critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda 1999 — Drafting the UN-endorsed guidelines for documentation of torture 2004 — Documentation of the genocide in Darfur 2008 — US complicity of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay 2010 — Human experimentation by CIA medical personnel on prisoners in violation of the Nuremberg Code 2011 — Violations of medical neutrality in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring ... 2 Arrow Street | Suite 301 1156 15th Street, NW | Suite 1001 Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Washington, DC 20005 USA +1 617 301 4200 +1 202 728 5335 physiciansforhumanrights.org ©2012, Physicians for Human Rights. All rights reserved. ISBN: 1-879707-68-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2012945532 Cover photo: Bahraini anti-riot police fire tear gas grenades at peaceful and unarmed civilians protesters, including a Shi’a cleric, in June 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxauI5hdjqk. -
Download Being the Number of Sent Packets That Were Acknowledged As Received
Dimming the Internet Detecting Throttling as a Mechanism of Censorship in Iran Collin Anderson? [email protected] Abstract. In the days immediately following the contested June 2009 Presidential election, Iranians attempting to reach news content and so- cial media platforms were subject to unprecedented levels of the degra- dation, blocking and jamming of communications channels. Rather than shut down networks, which would draw attention and controversy, the government was rumored to have slowed connection speeds to rates that would render the Internet nearly unusable, especially for the consump- tion and distribution of multimedia content. Since, political upheavals elsewhere have been associated with headlines such as \High usage slows down Internet in Bahrain" and \Syrian Internet slows during Friday protests once again," with further rumors linking poor connectivity with political instability in Myanmar and Tibet. For governments threatened by public expression, the throttling of Internet connectivity appears to be an increasingly preferred and less detectable method of stifling the free flow of information. In order to assess this perceived trend and begin to create systems of accountability and transparency on such practices, we attempt to outline an initial strategy for utilizing a ubiquitious set of network measurements as a monitoring service, then apply such method- ology to shed light on the recent history of censorship in Iran. Keywords: censorship, national Internet, Iran, throttling, M-Lab 1 Introduction "Prison is like, there's no bandwidth." - Eric Schmidt1 The primary purpose of this paper is to assess the validity of claims that the international connectivity of information networks used by the Iranian public has been subject to substantial throttling based on a historical and correlated set of open measurements of network performance. -
Bahrain 2013 Human Rights Report
BAHRAIN 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy. King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa, the head of state, appoints the cabinet consisting of 29 ministers; 13 of those ministers, excluding the deputy prime ministers, are members of the Sunni al-Khalifa ruling family. The parliament consists of an appointed upper house, the Shura (Consultative) Council, and an elected Council of Representatives. Approximately 17 percent of eligible voters participated in parliamentary by-elections for 18 seats vacated by the political opposition societies in September 2011. Independent human rights organizations did not consider the by-elections free and fair. In May 2012 the king ratified constitutional amendments broadening the powers of the elected chamber of parliament. Authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. Security forces committed human rights abuses. The most serious human rights problems included citizens’ inability to change their government peacefully; arrest and detention of protesters on vague charges, in some cases leading to their torture in detention; and lack of due process in trials of political and human rights activists, medical personnel, teachers, and students, with some trials resulting in harsh sentences. Other significant human rights problems included arbitrary deprivation of life; lack of consistent accountability for security officers accused of committing human rights violations; arrest of individuals on charges relating to freedom of expression; reported violations of privacy; and restrictions on civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and some religious practices. The government at times imposed and enforced travel bans on political activists in conjunction with arrest charges. The government maintained the revocation of citizenship for 31 individuals and issued a decree regulating communications between political societies and foreign entities, which had not been enforced by year’s end. -
State Power 2.0.Pdf
STATE POWER 2.0 Proof Copy 000 Hussain book.indb 1 9/9/2013 2:02:58 PM This collection is dedicated to the international networks of activists, hactivists, and enthusiasts leading the global movement for Internet freedom. Proof Copy 000 Hussain book.indb 2 9/9/2013 2:02:58 PM State Power 2.0 Authoritarian Entrenchment and Political Engagement Worldwide Edited by MUZAMMIL M. HUSSAIN University of Michigan, USA PHILIP N. HOWARD University of Washington, USA Proof Copy 000 Hussain book.indb 3 9/9/2013 2:02:59 PM © Muzammil M. Hussain and Philip N. Howard 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Muzammil M. Hussain and Philip N. Howard have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street Union Road Suite 3-1 Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818 Surrey, GU9 7PT USA England www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Howard, Philip N. State Power 2.0 : Authoritarian Entrenchment and Political Engagement Worldwide / by Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4094-5469-4 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4094-5470-0 (ebook) -- ISBN 978- 1-4724-0328-5 (epub) 1. -
Freedom on the Net 2019
Bahrain Not Free 29 100 A Obstacles to Access 16 25 B Limits on Content 835 C Violations of User Rights 540 Last Year's Score & Status 29 100 Not Free Overview Internet freedom in Bahrain remains restricted. While no internet shutdowns were reported during the coverage period, numerous websites continued to be blocked, social media users were arrested and jailed, and the level of self-censorship and state surveillance remained high. Journalists and activists who work online, including those abroad, continued to face extralegal intimidation, and reports continue of their severe abuse while in custody of Bahraini authorities. The government works to manipulate and control online information. Bahrain was once viewed as a promising model for political reform and democratic transition, but it has become one of the Middle East’s most repressive states. Since violently crushing a popular prodemocracy protest movement in 2011, the Sunni-led monarchy has systematically eliminated a broad range of political rights and civil liberties, dismantled the political opposition, and cracked down harshly on persistent dissent in the Shiite population. Key Developments June 1, 2018 – May 31, 2019 In contrast to past years, no restrictions to connectivity were observed during the reporting period (see A3). In April 2019, authorities announced progress on plans to establish a single national broadband network, which is expected to be completed later in 2019 ( see A4). Video recordings and live-streamed video of government proceedings were censored or removed on several occasions, apparently to prevent users from viewing potentially controversial or embarrassing remarks by officials (see B2). In May 2019, the cybercrime directorate of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) declared the accounts of several Bahraini activists and journalists to be malicious, and a few days later sent SMS messages and tweeted to users to warn them that following “malicious” social media accounts could result in prosecution (see B5, C7). -
The Arab Spring's Four Seasons
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs Volume 3 Issue 1 3:1 April 2014 The Arab Spring’s Four Seasons: International Protections and the Sovereignty Problem Jillian Blake Aqsa Mahmud Follow this and additional works at: https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/jlia Part of the Diplomatic History Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, International Law Commons, International Trade Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Political Science Commons, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Rule of Law Commons, Social History Commons, and the Transnational Law Commons ISSN: 2168-7951 Custom Citation Jillian Blake & Aqsa Mahmud, The Arab Spring’s Four Seasons: International Protections and the Sovereignty Problem, 3 Penn. St. J.L. & Int’l Aff. 161 (2014). The Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs is a joint publication of Penn State’s School of Law and School of International Affairs. Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs 2014 VOLUME 3 NO. 1 THE ARAB SPRING’S FOUR SEASONS: INTERNATIONAL PROTECTIONS AND THE SOVEREIGNTY PROBLEM Jillian Blake & Aqsa Mahmud * INTRODUCTION In December 2010, public demonstrations erupted throughout the Middle East against autocratic regimes, igniting a regional political transformation known as the Arab Spring. While some of these demonstrations were peaceful, others escalated into domestic uprisings and civil and international wars. Depending on events, modern international criminal and humanitarian law provided certain protections to vulnerable populations. However, international law did not provide a uniform degree of protection to civilians and combatants who faced similar circumstances. Post-Arab Spring, some countries have been relatively stable while others continue to face internal conflicts; most notably, the violent civil war in Syria continues to this day. -
DRAFT ONLY – 5 January 2012
International Mission to Bahrain Report Justice Denied in Bahrain: Freedom of Expression and Assembly Curtailed January 2012 Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................ 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 5 I. Violations ................................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Digital Media Censorship ................................................................................................................ 6 2. Detention and Persecution of Human Rights Defenders .................................................... 7 3. Arrests, Murder and Harassment of Journalists .................................................................. 11 4. Arrests of Protesters ...................................................................................................................... 12 5. Silencing of Writers and Artists ................................................................................................. 13 6. Firing and Arrests of Teachers ................................................................................................... 14 7. Expulsion of Students .................................................................................................................... 15 8. Lengthy Prison Sentences