Co-Founder and President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), and founding Director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), Nabeel is also member of the Middle East Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch.
Arrested three years ago, Nabeel was sentenced in two different cases to seven years in prison for having publicly condemned the human rights situation in Bahrain and the indiscriminate shelling by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in his various Tweets, interviews and op-eds. The international community has unanimously denounced the judicial harassment and the parody of justice that marred the trials. Nabeel was ill-treated in deplorable prison conditions and faced violence while incarcerated with members of the Islamic State. His health has since continued to deteriorate, causing serious concerns for his physical integrity and well being.
FIDH has consistently called for Nabeel’s immediate and unconditionnal release, and we are now hoping that the two sentences will at least be converted into an alternative sentence that would allow him to join his family. Nabeel Rajab has also recently been awarded the prestigious distinction ofhonorary citizen of the city of Paris.
In May 2017, the UN Committee against Torture reported in its concluding observations on Bahrain that it was "particularly concerned" about the arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, including Nabeel Rajab. Similarly, in an opinion issued on August 13, 2018, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention acknowledged that Nabeel Rajab’s detention was arbitrary, but also discriminatory with regard to his status as a human rights defender.