Details have begun to emerge about the Emirati funding of GNRD, the strange – and now bankrupt – human rights organisation accused of money-laundering.
In May last year Norwegian police raided GNRD's international headquarters in Stavanger, along with the home of its founder/president, Loai...
Blog archive: Uae
-
21st August 2016
-
25th July 2016GNRD, the strange "human rights" organisation that was declared bankrupt earlier this month, had an unusually favourable view of human rights in the UAE. It was also on friendly terms with Egypt's Sisi regime and the Kurdish PYD. Another of its friendships, though – and one which it sought to...
-
23rd July 2016For several years GNRD, the now-bankrupt human rights organisation, boasted that the European Parliament was one of its international "collaborators" and proudly displayed the parliament's logo on its website. The effect of this was to give the UAE-funded organisation an aura of credibility...
-
14th July 2016Britain's continuing political upheaval resulted not only in the appointment of a new prime minister yesterday but also a new foreign secretary, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson – referred to by almost everyone simply as "Boris" or "BoJo". In some ways, Boris and the Foreign Office...
-
5th July 2016One of the world's strangest human rights organisations, the Emirati-funded Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), was declared bankrupt by a court in Norway yesterday. The case was brought by an employee, Thomas Bechmann, who claimed he was owed NOK 250,000 ($30,120) in unpaid wages...
-
20th April 2016"I was annoyed to see, once again, the UAE being included in the lists of global 'tax havens' trotted out after the Panama data was leaked," Frank Kane writes in a column for the Emirati newspaper, The National. He continues: "To group the Emirates together with the British Virgin Islands...
-
6th April 2016There's another twist in the tale of the UAE and a visiting delegation of British MPs. For the benefit of new readers, the story so far is that the Emirati government's news agency, WAM, issued two reports last weekend claiming the MPs had praised the UAE's awful human rights record. Both...
-
6th April 2016A British MP has accused the UAE's government-run news agency of making up quotes in support of the Gulf state's oppressive human rights policies. Last weekend the Emirati website, Gulf News, published a story headed "British House of Commons praises human rights in UAE". In fact, the House...
-
14th March 2016Some unusually dramatic weather hit the United Arab Emirates last week. In the words of Gulf News: Rain and thunderstorms caused major disruptions across the UAE on Wednesday as flights were cancelled, motorists were stuck for hours, traffic on major roads diverted and schools...
-
16th January 2016Britons missing in Qatar The Emirati connection 4 Sept 2014: Two British men have been reported missing after travelling to Qatar to investigate the treatment of Nepalese migrant workers there. The assumption is that the Qatari authorities did not like what they were doing, and arrested...
-
1st January 2016Dubai greeted the New Year with cheers and fireworks last night as smoke and flames billowed from a burning skyscraper. By daybreak, the fire at The Address, a 63-storey hotel and residential complex, had still not been completely extinguished. Fortunately, however, reports so far indicate...
-
29th November 2015Carole Samaha returns to GNRD Lebanese singer backs mysterious rights organisation Following the birth of her baby daughter in August, Lebanese singer/actress Carole Samaha has announced that she will be resuming "professional activities" in December and returning to the...