Alternative Human Rights Expo

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Watch the third Alternative Human Rights Expo

 

As we approach International Human Rights Defenders Day on 09 December 2024, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) asks supporters to watch the recording of the third Alternative Human Rights Expo, held online on 27 November 2024, with the support of over two dozen partners, and amplify our calls to release human rights defenders (HRDs) persecuted in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by showcasing the work of detained HRDs, WHRDs and activists, as well as artists, poets, writers and musicians from the MENA region with a focus on human rights.

There was a generous amount of solidarity between participants, some of whom had been imprisoned or persecuted, or have family members in prison in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and with the people of Palestine and Lebanon.

The event opened with music by multi-generational Arab women’s drum and vocal ensemble Tabiba, made up of world music artists based in Canada who are from Palestine, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. Tabiba, which mixes the colours of their voices, traditions and inspirations to make music medicine, performed “Marhaba” (“Hello”).

“Today’s event is not an entertainment event; it is rather of a cathartic and awareness-raising nature; we are aiming to show the reality of the human rights defenders we work with,” said GCHR’s Executive Director Khalid Ibrahim, who co-hosted the event.

Co-host Marwa Fatafta, Access Now’s MENA Policy and Advocacy Director, added, “This event is not an entertainment show but a sober reminder of the gruesome reality which human rights defenders, artists, journalists, and dissidents in the MENA region are actively working to change. For this purpose, I was tasked with laying the landscape by giving a regional overview – and I cannot but start with the heart-wrenching situation in Gaza, described as ‘hell on earth,’ ‘children’s graveyard,’ ‘an apocalypse,’ and a place where all international norms and rules have vanished.”

Fatafta then gave a regional MENA overview. She said, “Those of us who are not embroiled in war and genocidal violence are facing the rising tide of authoritarianism across the region, made possible by an arsenal of repressive tools – from the weaponisation of draconian laws such as cybercrime and counter-terrorism laws to detain and prosecute human rights defenders and activists for peacefully exercising their rights, to the use of commercial spyware and surveillance technologies to monitor our communications and activities.” 

Taha Alhajji of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), spoke about four imprisoned WHRDs in Saudi Arabia, including Salma Al-Shehab, Nourah Al-Qahtani, Manahel Al-Otaibi, and Israa Al-Ghomgham, as well as the two imprisoned Wikipedians, Osama Khalid and Ziad Al-Sufyani, who are among the many Saudis imprisoned for decades for online activity. He said, “There are no active human rights organisations working inside Saudi Arabia and their members are either in prison or displaced. The government has practiced extreme pressures on women human rights defenders.” He added, “Sports and cultural events inside Saudi Arabia cannot cover up this dire situation.” The Expo provided an opportunity to feature their cases ahead of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) being held in Saudi Arabia in December 2024.

The event featured art by three of many Palestinian artists who have been killed in Gaza in the past year, Heba Zagout, Fathi Gaben and Mahasen Al-Ktheeb, the artist who created the viral artwork of “We Are Burning” hours before being being killed on 18 October 2024 in Jabalia camp. Fatafta said, “Tragically, the work of artists featured in previous Alternative Human Rights Expos, such as Heba Zagout, has been totally destroyed and lives online only now.” We also showed a painting called “No Words” by artist Malak Mattar, who left her home in Gaza in early October 2023 to study in London. She has also written a children’s book “Sitti’s Bird”, based on her personal experience as a child.

Khalid Ibrahim spoke about GCHR’s Board member, imprisoned Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor, who is serving a combined 25 years in prison in the UAE, and showed a video made by Manu Luksch, and poetry read by Ibrahim. “It is really powerful to see Ahmed speaking and we hope he will be released soon, along with other human rights defenders. We are always hopeful,” he said. The event also featured a video made by the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC) about imprisoned human rights lawyer Dr. Mohammed Al-Roken, who was sentenced to life in prison in the July 2024 as part of the notorious UAE84 case.

The work of imprisoned Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who is wrongfully being held past the end of his sentence, which ended two months ago, was read by his aunt Ahdaf Soueif, an acclaimed writer. She said, “It’s good to be with you although it is sad that we continue to have to do this year after year, although we are always hopeful that next year things will improve and that some of the people we have spoken about will have won their freedom.” She mentioned that Abd El-Fattah She added, “Today is the 60th day of my sister’s hunger strike, and we’re trying to raise awareness that whatever he’s being punished for, 10 years is enough. We’re trying to get the British government to appeal to their friends in Egypt…. to let him go.”

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy spoke about the release in April 2024 of 1,500 prisoners, including his brothers-in-law, Sayed Hashem and Sayed Nazar, who had already spent over seven years in prison. “It was a special day and opened a new chapter of real hope,” he said, but “those hopes were diminished” when the Eid pardons did not include Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja or Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, who has been on a liquids-only hunger strike since July 2021 to protest the confiscation of the research about Bahraini dialects, written by hand in prison. Alwadaei spoke of the determination of political prisoners such as Dr. Al-Singace and Alaa Abd El-Fattah who resort to hunger strike to amplify their demands.

We also showed a video made by Maryam Al-Khawaja, calling for support for her father as he heads towards 5000 days behind bars. She said, “On 16 December 2024, we will mark the heartbreaking milestone that my father has spent 5000 days in prison for being a human rights defender. What would you have missed if you had spent the last 14 years in prison? My father has been failed by the international community, and especially by the Danish government. He must be released before we hit the 5000 day mark.”

Women’s rights advocate Shiva Nazarahari of Femena showed art and cartoons from WHRD Atena Farghadani, who was sentenced to six years in prison on 10 June 2024 for attempting to hang one of her cartoons near the presidential palace in Tehran. Nazarahari also read a poem, “I Rose Up Again”, by imprisoned Iranian WHRD Mahvash Sabet, with whom she noted that she spent time in prison in 2009. Sabet is currently serving a second 10-year prison sentence.

Umama Hamido, a Lebanese artist and experimental filmmaker based in London, read from her work “My Two Little Boys” about her twins, to whom she wrote, “our roots might be heavy, but you must never experience it as a burden, but rather as a blessing.” Hamido’s work addresses lived and shared experiences of immigration, as she questions our relation to traumatic spaces, how the formation of the self is affected by separation from homeland and the exile’s gaze.

The event closed with a video of “Chbik Nsitini” (Why did you forget me?), a song by Tunisian musician and activist Yasser Jradi, who sadly died in August this year. His video was introduced by his niece Feryel Jradi Charfeddine of HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement, who said, “the song expressed his frustration for what happened with the marginalised people of the country.”

 Click here for the Full Programme

Viewers are asked to make donations to support the event’s participants and the detained HRDs/WHRDs by donating at https://www.gc4hr.org/support-us/

Thank you to our partners!

Partners:

  1. Gulf Centre for Human Rights
  2. ALQST for Human Rights
  3. Access Now
  4. Amnesty International
  5. Amnesty International Sutton Group
  6. Amnesty International Westminster & Bayswater
  7. Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR)
  8. Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
  9. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
  10. CIVICUS
  11. Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC)
  12. European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR)
  13. FairSquare
  14. FEMENA
  15. FIDH
  16. Free Al-Khawaja Campaign
  17. Human Rights First
  18. Human Rights Sentinel
  19. Human Rights Watch
  20. HuMENA
  21. Index on Censorship
  22. IFEX
  23. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
  24. Maharat Foundation
  25. PEN America
  26. Qurium Media Foundation
  27. SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights
  28. Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC)
  29. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

Alternative Human Rights Expo II

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and 35 partners presented the Alternative Human Rights Expo II, an online event on 15 November 2023. The event was hosted by Weaam Youssef of GCHR, exiled Emirati woman human rights defender Jenan Al-Marzooqi, and Brian Dooley of Human Rights First. The event was very personal for the co-hosts, who have worked with or are related to some of the human rights defenders featured. You can watch the event on GCHR’s YouTube account, and visit the gallery here. The full programme is here with links to the individual videos.

In her welcoming remarks, Weaam Youssef said, “Today’s event is not an entertainment event; it is rather of a cathartic and awareness-raising nature; we are aiming today to show the reality of the human rights defenders we work with and support and showcase their art and literature to unveil the injustice they have been subjected to and allow them the space to share their own stories with their own words or any art form they may choose.”

Michel Forst, the world’s first UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention, introduced the event. He said, that “in the region, many of those activists are currently targeted with surveillance for their work or in prison, including land defenders who have been arrested for protecting territories or environmental activists protesting megaprojects.” His mandate arises from the need to have specific protection for environmental defenders, who are the most at risk among all human rights defenders.

The purpose of the event is to call for the release of human rights defenders detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as others persecuted in the region – from Bahrain to Egypt to Iran to Saudi Arabia, by showcasing the work of detained human rights defenders, and featuring environmental activists, as well as poets, writers and musicians from Egypt, Bahrain, Iran, Morocco and Lebanon. The event had a common theme of women’s rights and environmental rights, and featured women activists in prison in the UAE, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as the art of Emirati, Syrian and Palestinian women artists.

Among others who have been killed by indiscriminate bombing in Gaza are artists including Heba Zagout, Muhammed Sami Qariqa, and Halima Al-Kahlout. They all had a connection to  Dar Al-Kalima Art Centre. Two weeks before she was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on 13 October, Heba Zagout, a 39-year-old mother of two, posted a YouTube video about her work, which was shown at the event.

Fatemeh Ekhtesari read two of her poems and spoke of women’s struggles for freedom in Iran, including by Mahsa Amini, who was killed in September 2023 for refusing to wear hijab. She said, “You are aware of the ‘Women’s life freedom’ movement. These days, we mourn the anniversary of the death of the young protesters every day. Every day, we read news about the arrest or sentencing of one of the detainees…. But the people of Iran are always in a state of struggle and fighting. Iranian women have not taken a step back and demonstrate their civil resistance by refusing mandatory hijab.” This includes Narges Mohammadi, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, who refused to wear hijab when she went to the hospital from prison after a hunger strike.

Lina Al-Hathloul from ALQST for Human Rights read the tweets of Salma Al-Shehab, a Saudi women’s rights activist who is serving an unjust 27-year-prison sentence, and called on supporters to sign the petition to free her. She also talked about other human rights defenders in prison such as Manahel Al-Otaibi, who was arrested in 2022 for refusing to wear an abaya; and Dr. Mohammed Al-Qahtani, who remains held incommunicado for over a year. She also mentioned that her sister Loujain Al-Hathloul is still not permitted to travel even though her 5-year travel ban ended in October 2023.

In a video, Maryam Al-Khawaja read her poem “A Letter to my Father”, and at the event, a poem called “The Wall”, written by Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, was read by GCHR’s Executive Director Khalid Ibrahim, who mentioned how he co-founded GCHR with Al-Khawaja before his arrest in 2011. We also heard from Mohamed Jawad Hameed, a Bahraini musician, singer and human rights and environmental activist, who lives in Ma’ameer, a village surrounded by over 130 polluting factories, industrial workshops, petroleum and petrochemical plants. He has been persecuted for his activism, but this has not deterred Jawad who is resolute in his demands for clean air and a healthy environment, and an end to discrimination in Bahrain. Then we listened to his song “Searching for Clean Air.”

Well-known Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif spoke about her nephew Alaa Abdel Fattah, and read some of his writing about Gaza. She mentioned that he remains in prison and that in October 2023 a petition had been made to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to free him. On 14 November, Soueif accepted the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation “disturbing the peace courageous writer at risk award” on behalf of Alaa Abd El-Fattah in New York. A year ago, when the Conference of Parties (COP27) was held in Egypt, human rights group and the family of Abd El-Fattah highlighted that he was at risk from a prolonged hunger strike to protest poor prison conditions in Egypt, where freedom of expression is not respected, and the attention raised led to some improvements and the end of his hunger strike.

The Alternative Human Rights Expo II was organised ahead of the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) to be held from 30 November to 12 December 2023 UAE as part of activities to draw attention to the many human rights defenders detained in the UAE, including over 60 who are being held past the end of their sentences. They include members of the UAE94, such as Abdulsalam Derwish Al-Marzooqi, who is the father of Jenan Al-Marzooqi.

She said, “Being a family member of an Emirati detainee comes with its own set of challenges, especially when you are subjected to constant discrimination. It gets even worse when you are an activist or advocate at the same time. I can present myself and the late Alaa Al-Siddiq (whose art was shown) as daughters of Emirati detainees. … We experience threats due to our advocacy for our fathers’ release.” She added, “The government will strip away the rights of detainees and their families, control their access to essentials like health, education, and employment, while portraying the country as one of tolerance and justice.” Since April 2023, many families have had no calls or communication with their detained relatives.

Another Emirati detainee, Ahmed Mansoor, a GCHR board member, was featured in a short clip that filmmaker Manu Luksch prepared for our event from her upcoming documentary film on the Emirates. Khalid Ibrahim read a short poem by Mansoor who is also a poet and engineer. He remains in prison in solitary confinement. Hamad Al-Shamsi, of the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre, described the situation of detained Emirati activists and called for their release.

There was also a presentation by Shamel Al-Obaidy of the Climate Prospects Campaign in Iraq which has made recommendations to the authorities to protect the rights of environmental activists and peaceful protesters to publicise and campaign against the issue of climate-induced forced displacement. We saw some beautiful photos taken by Jassim Al-Asadi from Dhi Qar Governorate who has documented the environmental impact of climate change on the marshes, where he has been working for many years. Al-Asadi was released on 15 March in 2023 two weeks after he was kidnapped by an armed group. Despite being tortured in captivity, Al-Asadi said, “This kidnapping will increase my determination for people, nature and its environment.”

Finally, we heard from Neirouz Houri, a Kurdish children’s book illustrator from Syria who has been living in the Netherlands for four years. We saw some art that she created about the devastating earthquakes that hit Syria and Turkey in February 2023, and how their impact is still being felt today. She said, “My drawings are to make all my fantasies a reality and something visible, and to express myself. The challenges, circumstances, and reality that I lived in Syria of war and displacement. The most difficult thing was when I discovered that my son was suffering from autism.” She said, “This was a reason for me to use drawing as a tool to express my sadness and fears for my son and my anger at the denial of my identity and existence as a Kurd. I love drawing because I can I express everything I feel and I can express what words cannot express.”

In solidarity with indigenous environmental activists worldwide, the event closed with a tribute to Tyndek Arara, from the Indigenous Land Cachoeira Seca, in Brazilian Amazonia, who was found dead in October 2023 after returning from Geneva, where he had made a statement about invasions on his land at the UN Human Rights Council.

Kristina Stockwood, who managed the event for GCHR, said, “Thanks to all the participants and co-hosts for their powerful contributions. We had many people respond with heartfelt appreciation for this moving event. So many staff and partners contributed support and ideas for the event. Special thanks go to FIDH, Qurium Foundation, Amnesty Westminster Bayswater and the Innovation for Change MENA Hub.”

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