After more than two years in hiding, Ali Abdulemam (right), a globally renowned blogger and free-speech advocate, has been freed from the Kingdom of Bahrain, writes Thor Halvorssen, president of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. Abdulemam is now safely …

Bahrain saw its third consecutive days of protests against the forthcoming Formula One Grand Prix, as the leading Shia opposition group said it would hold a major demonstration to coincide with preparations for the event.

“The authorities are trying to …

Twenty-three Bahraini medics arrested during anti-government protests two years ago have had their convictions quashed. But two jailed human rights activists — a father and daughter — on a hunger strike are in a dangerous medical condition.

The medics had …

“Since the establishment of Egypt’s first republic in 1952, the country’s foreign policy has never been clearly sectarian, with neither a Sunni nor Shiite identity taking precedence,” says a prominent analyst. But following the election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s …

Bahrain will begin reconciliation talks this weekend with opposition groups, Reuters reports, in an attempt to end two years of conflict over demands for democratic reform.

Opposition groups contacted by Reuters suggested they would attend the talks but cited differences …

The Obama administration should be more assertive steps to in?uence the outcome of Arab Spring transitions, engage more broadly than government-to-government relations with a diverse set of actors, and employ leverage and incentives to affect the behavior of key actors, …

Newly emerging popular movements for reform were the driving force behind the Middle East’s major gains in democratic rights last year, according to Freedom in the World 2013, Freedom House’s annual report. But other regions experienced setbacks due to …

“Of the half dozen Arab states that were shaken by popular demands for democracy when the Arab Spring erupted two years ago, Bahrain is the easiest to forget,” says a prominent democracy analyst.

“In sharp contrast to Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, …

Gulf conservative states’ insistence that domestic reform movements are Iranian proxies striving to destabilize rather than democratize is debunked in a new analysis from a leading Washington think-tank.

“Shia movements in the Gulf …are still  driven more by local concerns …

A Bahrain court today upheld the convictions of 13 leading pro-democracy activists, in a judgment that government critics cited as confirmation that the ruling Sunni monarchy is uninterested in negotiating a political solution with the largely Shia opposition movement …