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Bahrain : Wednesday 13 July

Wednesday 13 July, Manama, Bahrain

It is always good to be back in Bahrain and meet with good friends and fantastic human rights defenders including Nabeel Rajab, Mohammed Al-Maskati and Abdullah Alderazi. We also meet with the distinguished editor and journalist Mansoor Al-Jamri.

We have a very impressive delegation led by Professor Damian McCormack who has done so much to galvanise the Irish and international medical community on the imprisoned medical personnel. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs David Andrews makes a big impression and draws on huge experience. Senator Averil Power who has been raising the plight of the doctors in the Irish Parliament arrived with a letter of support from Tanaiste and Minister of Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore. The quiet wisdom and dignity of Professor Eoin O'Brien, who will write an article in The Lancet on our visit, is a huge asset. And the tireless energy and goodwill of our own Khalid Ibrahim is invaluable.

Our main purpose was to meet with the families of the detained doctors and some of the recently released medical personnel and it was hugely emotional to be welcomed so warmly be these courageous and dedicated people.

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Ethiopia: Government Prepares Assault on Civil Societyposted on: 2008/07/08

Human Rights Watch reported that Repressive New Legislation Should Be Amended or Scrapped in Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s government should immediately abandon plans to impose strict government controls and draconian criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said on July 1st. The two groups called on donor governments, whose behind-the-scenes efforts to see the bill reformed appear to have failed, to speak out publicly against the de facto criminalization of most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia.