The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is an independent non-profit charity that defends human rights in the Persian Gulf and neighbouring states that include,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and a ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

, UAE,

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

, and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

. The GCHR is funded by the

Sigrid Rausing Trust Sigrid Maria Elisabet Rausing (born 29 January 1962) is a Swedish philanthropist, anthropologist and publisher. She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the United Kingdom's largest philanthropic foundations, and owner of ''Granta ...

. Its vision is "To develop and protect a sustainable network of human rights defenders in the Gulf region." They are based in

. The organisation was co-founded by Khalid Ibrahim along with

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail al-Khawaja ( ar, عبد الهادي عبد الله حبيل الخواجة) is a Bahraini political activist. On 22 June 2011, al-Khawaja and eight others were sentenced to life imprisonment following the suppression o ...

and Nabeel Rajab, Bahraini activists who have both been jailed in Bahrain. Bahraini activist Maryam Al-Khawaja is a co-director of the organisation. In June 2021, the organisation filled a complaint in France against UAE's official candidate for

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...

's presidency,

Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi (also romanised as Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi) is an Emirati military general officer. He currently serves as the 30th president of Interpol and the inspector general of the United Arab Emirates' interior ministry. Early career ...

. The organisation accuses him of being responsible for “torture and barbaric acts” against UAE dissident

Ahmed Mansoor Ahmed Mansoor Al Shehhi is an Emirati blogger, human rights and reform activist arrested in 2011 for defamation and insults to the heads of state and tried in the UAE Five trial. He was pardoned by UAE's president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahy ...

Activities and Campaigns

In its 24th periodic report on

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

violations in

, GCHR has documented the demonstrations and counter-demonstrations taking place in the country. Released on 8 August 2022, the report covers the violations that have affected citizens, including human rights activists, journalists, and media professionals. GCHR explains that children in Iraq are also subjected to numerous violations, including death and human trafficking. Among other recommendations, it urges the new Iraqi Council of Representatives to legislate the Law on the Protection of Journalists and the Law on the Protection of the Child. On 5 August 2022, GCHR expressed its concern over the safety of four journalists facing death sentence in

. GCHR demanded the immediate release of the journalists named Abdulkhaleq Ahmed Amran, Akram Saleh Al-Walidi, Al-Hareth Saleh Hamid, and Tawfiq Mohammed Al-Mansouri. On 16 August 2022, GCHR called for the immediate release of a journalist Younis Abdulsalam Ahmed Abdulrahman who was detained over a year ago in

References

Human rights organizations International nongovernmental organizations Human rights organisations based in Lebanon Non-profit organisations based in Lebanon {{nonprofit-org-stub