Ahmed Mansoor

Portrait of Ahmed Mansoor
Mansoor is one of the three human rights defenders selected as finalists for the 2015 Martin Ennals Award, and is due to be recognized at a ceremony hosted by the city of Geneva on October 6 2015.

Ahmed Mansoor is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, as well as the Advisory Board of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights.

Widely respected as one of the few voices within the UAE to provide a credible independent assessment of human rights developments in the country, Mansoor regularly raises concerns regarding arbitrary detention, torture or degrading treatment, and failure to meet international standards of fair trial. He also draws attention to other human rights abuses, including against migrant workers. As a result, Mansoor has faced repeated intimidation, harassment, and death threats from the UAE authorities and their supporters, including arrest and imprisonment in 2011 following an unfair trial. He and four other activists who called for democratic rights in the UAE were jailed in 2011 on the charge of “insulting officials”. Although pardoned and released later that year, Mansoor has been banned from travel and had his passport confiscated.