Coalition of 20 human rights organisations call for Ahmed Mansoor's release

A coalition of 20 human rights organisations released Thursday a press release calling on the UAE authorities to immediatly release Ahmed Mansoor, an award-winning human rights defender who is facing charges that violate his right to freedom of expression, one month after his arrest.

The coalition includes Amnesty International, Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, CIVICUS, Electronic Frontier Foundation, FIDH, under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Front Line Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship, International Press Institute, International Service for Human Rights, Martin Ennals Foundation, PEN International, Privacy International, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Scholars at Risk, Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State, Tunisia
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), and under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

Mansoor, who received the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, has been in detention since March 20, 2017, facing speech-related charges that include using social media websites to “publish false information that harms national unity,” the statement reads.

 On March 28, a group of United Nations human rights experts called on the UAE government to release him immediately, describing his arrest as a “a direct attack on the legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE.”

Read full statement: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/20/uae-free-prominent-rights-defender