International watchdog groups and governments criticized a string of new laws that restrict speech, media independence and free assembly in several Gulf states in recent days. In Qatar, a new media law would criminalize articles that "abuse the ...

Toby Jones, in a featured article for the Middle East Research and Information Report, discussed how opposition movements in the Gulf countries are affecting the United States. Jones argues the key task for the U.S. "is to aid ...

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah provoked outrage by opposition groups after suggesting an amendment to a key constituency electoral law. Demonstrations comprised of between 5,000-20,000 people also broke out yesterday. Speaking to the protesters, former lawmaker Musallam al-Barrak

The Financial Times released a special report entitled "Arab World: Banking and Finance," with key articles on Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. Simeon Kerr wrote on Bahrain, noting the country ...

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabeh al-Ahmad al-Sabah has "called upon all people to work together to maintain stability, security and national unity," after he issued a decree dissolving parliament.  In response, opposition groups warned "the current intentions of ...

The Project on Middle East Democracy hosted a panel discussion Wednesday, titled "Will the Monarchs Reform? Challenges to Democracy in the Gulf." The panel included Maryam al-Khawaja, Acting President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Deputy Director of ...

  Early Saturday morning the Senate passed S.Con.Res. 50, which calls on "the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet today." The bill ...

In a statement released Tuesday, The Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) expressed concern that the U.A.E may be moving toward a police state. The GCHR recieved reports that 51 human rights activists detained during recent crackdowns are on hunger ...

Only four members of Kuwait's 50 seat parliament attended a session on Tuesday to swear in a new cabinet, in the second such boycott in a week. The speaker of the assembly said that he will not try to ...

As the Battle for Aleppo rages on in northern Syria, Amnesty International has said that the Assad regime is responsible for mass human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity. In a report released Wednesday, Amnesty claimed that security ...

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have arrested another ten Islamist dissidents, bringing the total to twenty in recent weeks. Most are affiliated with the Islamist group al-Islah, including Hamad Roqait, one of the organization's founders who was taken away ...

Oman and the United Arab Emirates were criticized by a media watchdog and a human rights group for recent arrests and sentences against human rights activists and bloggers. Reporters Without Borders condemned the Omani government for sentencing activists to ...

The U.A.E. arrested prominent human rights lawyer Mohamed Al-Roken, a member of Amnesty International and a former head of the Emirati lawyer's association, and detained fellow lawyer Mohamed Al-Mansoori this week bringing condemnation from human rights organizations. Amnesty international

Ahmed Abdul Khaleq, an activist from the United Arab Emirates, says he has been deported to Thailand after being held in two months' detention for campaigning on behalf of the UAE's "bidoon." Bidoon, an Arabic word meaning "without," ...

Reuters reports that seven Islamist activists jailed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have challenged a presidential decree stripping them of their citizenship after a court refused to return their passports, according to their lawyer. The UAE revoked the ...

The U.S. Department of State released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011. Particular emphasis was placed on the Middle East and North Africa, where developments in the Arab Spring led to significant changes in ...

At least eight people have been detained this year in the United Arab Emirates due to suspected links to a local Islamist group al-Islah. The UAE has continued to crack down on civil society groups, as well as ...

In the interests of “staying in power at all costs,” Samia Errazzouki writes in Jadaliyya that Morocco, historically focusing its efforts on strengthening its ties with Europe, has shifted its focus back toward Arabia, coming largely as the ...