EUSR for Human Rights reply to letter from Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja

To: 

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja

Jau Prison – Building 14

Kingdom of Bahrain

Dear Mr Al-Khawaja,

I hope this letter finds you well despite your health conditions, which I have learned about with deep concern. I also take note of your decision to start on open-ended hunger strike. 

I thank you for your letter of 16 October 2025 addressed to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President (HR/VP) of the European Commission Kaja Kallas as well as my office. 

Since I started in my role in August 2025, my office has been deeply invested in your case, and we have had regular meetings with relevant actors. My predecessor addressed a letter to the Foreign Affairs Minister of Bahrain in 2021, pleading for your release on humanitarian grounds, and I have done the same. We have also frequently liaised on the matter with the Danish authorities, who hold the main consular responsibility for your case as a Danish citizen. 

We have also consistently raised our serious concerns regarding your situation, as a prominent human rights defender, with the Government of Bahrain - including through annual EU-Bahrain Human Rights Dialogues - the National Human Rights Institution, as well as in the framework of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Taking into consideration the conclusions of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of 2012 regarding your case, the EU has also been insisting on numerous occasions with its Bahraini interlocutors on the need to respect the UN Guidelines on the Minimum Standards of Treatment of Prisoners (“Mandela Rules”), underscoring the EU’s principled position on freedom of expression and association. 

I take the opportunity to reiterate that the European Union, in close cooperation with the Government of Denmark, will continue its diplomatic efforts towards your release and return to your family.

Sincerely,

Kajsa Ollongren

EU Special Representative for Human Rights