"French President Emmanuel Macron should not hold back in criticizing Bahrain's dismal rights record during King Hamad Al Khalifa's visit to Paris on April 30," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Campaigners for democracy and human rights in Bahrain have criticised David Beckham and other British celebrities for attending Sunday's Formula One race in the Gulf state.

Citizens said that the security apparatuses in Bahrain launched a random raid campaign against some houses and arrested a number of people, at a time Bahrain hosts Formula One race.

Human Rights Watch urged Formula One not to turn a blind eye to human rights ahead of next week's Bahrain Grand Prix, according to the British "The Independent" newspaper.

Human Rights Watch published on its website an article to Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives, in which she criticized holding Formula One race in Bahrain amid ignorance of blatant human rights violations in Bahrain, which some of them are related to the same sport.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the Formula One Group disregards its human rights commitments and overlooks grave rights abuses in Bahrain, stressing that some of the abuses appear to be directly related to Formula One's activities in the country.

Formula One bosses have been accused of turning a "blind eye" to the plight of a woman jailed after protesting against the Bahrain Grand Prix, the American Sky News website said.

Formula One has been accused of "looking the other way" by human rights groups in the case of an activist who was beaten, sexually abused and jailed for protesting against the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International along with other human rights organizations issued a statement demanding the Bahraini government to drop charges against family of human rights activist Sayed Ahmed Al-Wedaei.

Human Rights activists produced an animated documentary entitled "The Story of Hakeem" in English with Arabic subtitles. It shows the details of the prosecution and security pursuit of Bahraini soccer player Hakeem Al-Araibi until his release in Thailand and his return to Australia.

Hakeem Al-Araibi's release shows the power of collective action by athletes, governments, nongovernmental organizations, United Nations agencies, players' unions, and sports federations to address rights issues, Human Rights Watch said.

A coalition of Thai human rights and civil liberties groups, academics and leading legal figures have called on the government to release refugee footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi.

Thailand defended on Wednesday its arrest of a Bahraini footballer with refugee status in Australia, saying officials only detained him because Australian authorities sent an Interpol "red notice" after he boarded a plane to Bangkok.

Thailand's government should immediately release the refugee football player Hakeem Al-Araibi and let him return to his wife and team in Australia, Human Rights Watch said yesterday in announcing a campaign for his freedom.

A former Australian soccer player campaigning to free a Bahraini refugee athlete detained in Thailand wants FIFA, the sport's governing body, to sanction the soccer associations of Thailand and Bahrain if they fail to help.

Human rights organizations, activists and researchers called for radical change in international policies tackling human rights violations in Bahrain in an international conference held in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, entitled “Bahrain: 8 Years of Repression under International Silence”.

Human Rights Watch issued its 2019 world report on human rights around the globe, in which it said that the Bahraini authorities continue repression in Bahrain through targeting dissidents and attacking freedom of expression and assembly.

Radio NPR said that the case of Rahaf Al-Qunun has highlighted Thailand's mixed record when it comes to asylum-seekers and refugees.

The Bahrain Court of Cassation, the country's court of last resort, on December 31, 2018 upheld a five-year sentence for Nabeel Rajab, a prominent human rights defender, an act that was condemned by Human Rights Watch.

It’s been a grim 2018 for partisans of free expression in the Gulf, said Joe Stork in an article published on the LobeLog website, mentioning the final appeals court rulings on the long prison terms of the leading human rights figures in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.