On 30 September 2019, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) reported that human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, MEA laureate 2016 has started on a second hunger strike after receiving a severe beating for protesting his prison conditions n the United Arab Emirates (UAE). [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/04/10/mea-laureate-ahmed-mansoor-on-hunger-strike-in-emirates/]
On 7 May 2019, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and six other UN human rights experts condemned Mansoor’s conditions of detention, noting that “the poor conditions of his detention in the United Arab Emirates, including prolonged solitary confinement, may constitute torture.”
Mansoor, who is also on the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, is the 2015 winner of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. He is serving a 10-year sentence handed down on 29 May 2018 for the “crime” of speaking out about grave human rights violations in the UAE. For more info, click here.
GCHR and partners worldwide are planning a week of action to help free Mansoor surrounding his 50thbirthday on 22 October 2019. More information will be published soon at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofAhmedMansoor/ and on GCHR’s platforms.
GCHR is concerned that Ahmed Mansoor’s life is at risk and calls on:
- The UN mechanisms to act quickly to help protect and free Ahmed Mansoor;
- The UAE authorities to release Ahmed Mansoor immediately and unconditionally, put a stop to torture and reprisals against him; and allow international observers to visit him in prison and check on the conditions; and
- All supporters to tweet at UAE’s Vice President and Prime Minister @HHShkMohd to #FreeAhmed.
I have earlier pointed to the cynical way in which the Emirates state tries to present a humanitarian face while continuing its severe repression of human rights defenders, see e.g. https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/09/14/uae-whitewashing-specialists-get-help-from-the-uk/
https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/2215
Ahmed Mansoor goes on second hunger strike after severe prison beating
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
October 26, 2019 at 20:13
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