The GCC investment in Jordan and Morocco is not an investment in stable governance. If they wanted to support democracy and stability, they would have invested in Tunisia and Egypt. Instead, they are investing in regimes that mimic their own Umayyad model of governance. The GCC rulers embraced a selective policy of condemning regimes, like the Syrian one, for abusing their citizens while throwing a safety line to other abusive Bahraini, Moroccan, and Jordanian regimes. Such a policy is shortsighted and unproductive. Western countries should be wary of such political engineering intended to preserve clannish rule, not representative governance.

The Gulf Cooperative Council and the Arab Spring
By Ahmed Souaiaia – December 26, 2011 – FPIF

The Arab world is fundamentally changing, and many Arab leaders are racing to adapt. Showing increased signs of nervousness, the leaders of the Gulf States have adopted the Saudi King’s recommendation to move the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) toward “unity.” The meeting of the rulers of the GCC member states that concluded last week also issued an unusually portentous declaration. The rulers expressed their fears of “attempts by foreign entities trying to export their internal crises through the effects of discord and division, and inciting sectarianism.” Therefore, they outlined a strategy “to fortify the home front” to counter these attempts through their “determination to achieve the highest degree of economic integration and development of defense cooperation and security.”

Let’s attempt to decipher these seemingly cryptic sentences.

The Saudis in particular, and the other Gulf States in general, are fearful of two main threats, real or perceived. The first threat is Iran, which challenges their long-held religious and ethnic tenets. The second threat is the Arab Awakening, which challenges them ideologically and politically. The two threats seem to be connected now, and they will only be more so in the future. The Gulf State strategy seems to be based on the assumption that the stability of all Gulf regimes can only be disturbed by outside forces.

The Saudi political rulers in particular have tied their destiny to a form of Islamic expression that reveres the “Salaf” and downplays the direct political role of Islamic scholars. The Kingdom’s stability hinges on preserving the Umayyad model of governance, and the conservative interpretation of Islam through the lens of Wahhabism. Modern Islamists’ interpretation of Islam could weaken the Saudi paradigm, which is built on consent, not dissent or contestation. …more

Wafi Al-Majed is Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s son in-law, Zainab Alkhawja’s husband. He was arrested with Mr. Alkhawaja along with Hussain Ahmed after beind subjected to beating and violent. He has a one year old daughter, Jude who is asking for her father. We demand his release immediately.

Free Wafi Al-Majed – Abdulhadi Alkhawaja’s son in-law. Today is Wafi’s Birthday.. we still haven’t heard anything from him !! He has no access to his family or a lawyer .. !!! We hope he is ok and are waiting for his return .. ! …more

Barricaded in Bahrain
Joost Hiltermann and Kelly McEvers – 27 December, 2011 – NYR

AFP/Getty Images – Bahraini girl calling for the ouster of King Hamad, after funeral for Abdelnabi Kadhim, Manama, November 24, 2011

On November 23, Manama, the modern capital of the tiny Gulf nation of Bahrain, was in an uncharacteristically welcoming mood. Foreign reporters—allowed into the country for the first time in months—were swamped with invitations to a “celebration” at a posh royal palace and offered interviews with usually reticent Bahraini officials. The occasion was the long-awaited release of a report about the government’s strong-armed handling of last spring’s popular uprising. Since the report had been requested—and paid for—by the government itself, officials were expecting a few minor criticisms. Then, they reasoned, the country would move on.

Things didn’t go according to plan.

For one thing, the country shows little sign of moving on from the uprising last February and March, in which government forces brutally cracked down on tens of thousands of people—men and women—many of them belonging to the country’s Shia majority, who had taken to the streets for weeks to voice grievances against the ruling family, who are Sunni. At least 35 people were killed, mostly by security forces and pro-government mobs; thousands were detained; and hundreds of activists, political figures and professionals such as doctors, nurses, lawyers and athletes were tried in closed-door military courts and jailed. And there is still widespread fear of more violence.

In fact, the morning the ceremony was to take place, reports began circulating that a 44-year-old man named Abdelnabi Kadhim had been killed under suspicious circumstances in the small, poor Shiite village of Aali, about an hour from the capital. A handful of us went to see what happened. Like so many of “the villages,” as the Shiite towns outside the capital are called, Aali is a dusty collection of two- and three-story houses made of plywood, corrugated steel, plaster, and bare concrete floors. Substandard housing, high unemployment, and a sense of unequal treatment have made Aali one of a dozen or so centers of protest.

According to people in the village, Kadhim’s car had been rammed by riot police as he was driving his wife to work. (By the time we got to Aali, the car had been removed.) Kadhim had been a regular presence at village protests. When the women in Kadhim’s family gathered to mourn his death, riot police fired tear gas canisters into their home. Neighbors showed us the broken glass from the attack. As they described what happened, a small group of young men and women gathered outside Kadhim’s house to shout, “Down down Hamad!” calling for the overthrow of Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa. …more

Representatives Sign Bahrain Arms Sale Resolution
27 December, 2011 – POMED

Representatives Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Christopher S. Murphy (D-CT) joined sixteen other cosponsors by signing on to H.J. Res. 80, which calls for “limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to a certain proposed sale of defense articles and defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain,” originally introduced by Rep. James McGovern (D-MA).

The resolution limits the proposed arms sale, requiring the Secretary of State to “certify to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives” that the Government of Bahrain “is conducting good faith investigations and prosecutions of alleged perpetrators responsible for the killing, torture, arbitrary detention, and other human rights violations committed since February 2011,” among other measures ensuring the Government of Bahrain’s compliance with international human rights standards. …source

Officially a ‘constitutional monarchy’ is based upon similar models in Europe, the reality in Bahrain is that all political decision-making is subject to royal consent, rendering it a de facto absolute monarchy. Central authority resides in the chief of state, KingHamad b. Isa al-Khalifa and his Court Minister Sheikh Khalid b. Ahmed al-Khalifa. The prime minister serves as head of the government but the position holds only that power granted to it by the chief of state, as it is the King who appoints an individual at his discretion to the role. The incumbent prime minister, since 1970, is Sheikh Khalifa b. Salman al-Khalifa.

BROKEN PROMISES Human Rights, Constitutionalism and Socio-economic Exclusion in Bahrain
by Omar F. Ahmed – 2010 Islamic Human Rights Commission – Paper

Executive Summary
As of 2010 Bahrain has not successfully completed its transition from an absolute monarchy in which unqualified power lies with the unelected head of state to a constitutional monarchy that assigns decision-making authority to an elected legislature and representative government. Socio-economic and political exclusion of the wider population is prevalent. The country’s regional economic success belies the fact that a significant proportion of Bahrainis live in poverty and unemployment.
Resentment is further exacerbated when accusations of profligacy and corruption are levelled at some senior government officials who are protected from legal scrutiny and public accountability due to their close proximity to royal power in the country.

Confrontation between the security forces and protestors has resulted in violence and, on occasions, death. The focus of many demonstrations is allegations of discriminatory practices carried out by the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa family against Bahrain’s majority Shia population. Discriminatory policies are deployed as a tool by the ruling government to marginalise and disenfranchise the largest section of Bahraini society. Though outwardly sectarian in nature, these measures are designed to prevent democratic reform, and are therefore not necessarily concerned primarily with religious exclusion. The response by marginalised Shia in turn is fuelled by socio-economic neglect and political marginalisation as opposed to sectarianism. …more

Mahdi ‘Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb, former president of the Bahrain Teacher’s Association, was tried in a Military Court and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The charges included using his position within the BTA to call for teachers’ strike, organize marches and demonstrations, incite “hatred of the regime” and seek its overthrow by force. Amnesty International said that it feared Mahdi ‘Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb may be imprisoned solely on account of their legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, in which case they should be released immediately and unconditionally and their convictions should be quashed.

Dr. Mahmoud Asghar is a doctor in Bahrain who was one of the medical professionals arrested, detained, tortured and sentenced in trial that failed to meet international fair trial standards. Front Line Defenders is calling for all the medical professionals and other human rights defenders in Bahrain to be released immediately.

Hillary Rodham Clinton – excerpt of remarks to the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women Plenary Session – 2009

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.

Women must enjoy the rights to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries, if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. It is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend — or have been prohibited from fully taking part.

Let me be clear. Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.

…full text and video HERE

Hillary Clinton Promotes Women’s Rights Treaty That U.S. Has Not Yet Joined
20 November, 2011 – Joshua Hersch – Huffington Post

NEW YORK — On the eve of high-level meetings for the United Nations’ general assembly, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended an event on Monday afternoon designed to highlight the importance of women’s participation in public life.

Together with a selection of major female world leaders, including Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top diplomat, and Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and the head of U.N. Women, Clinton put her name to a document calling for developing countries — especially in the changing Middle East — to clear the way for women to hold leadership roles.

The joint statement read:

We call upon all States to ratify and fulfill their obligations under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and to implement fully Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women and Peace and Security and other relevant UN resolutions.

There was only one problem: the United States is the only industrialized nation — and one of only seven in the world — that has not yet signed onto the CEDAW treaty.
[Read more →]

Bahrain: Imprisoned for playing revolutionary songs in her car
15 December 2011 – Freemuse

According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), 38 year old Fadhila Al Mubarak has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for participating in peaceful protests and for playing a revolutionary CD in her car.

On 27 March 2011, Fadhila Al Mubarak was asked to pull over at a checkpoint because she had a CD with revolutionary songs playing in her car. She had her 9 year old son with her in the car at the time of the arrest. According to BCHR she was insulted, called names and cursed at.

No contact during detention
It took four days for Fadhila Al Mubarak’s family to find out in which police station she was held in custody. She was detained for about one month and during the period of her detention, her family was not allowed to visit her nor talk to her over the phone. When family members tried to appoint her a lawyer, the request was rejected by the military court.

On 17 May, Fadhila Al Mubarak was convicted of offending a public official, inciting hatred towards the regime by playing an audio recording of revolutionary music, taking part in illegal protests and possession of a poem about the Bahriani revolution. She was sentenced by the military court to four years of imprisonment without being represented by a lawyer. …more