[1] It was founded by Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Alaa Shehabi and Hussain Abdullah in 2013, and is funded by the Sigrid Rausing Trust[2] for the years 2016-2019.
[3] One of the founders of BIRD, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, received attention for his advocacy work[4] and for protesting against visits by members of the Bahraini Royal Family to the United Kingdom.
In 2020, he was co-winner of the Index on Censorship "campaigning" award, for "[continuing] his work as a prominent critic of the Bahraini government ... despite the danger faced by him and his family.
"[5] BIRD has led a number of campaigns to raise awareness about what they view as the political repression of the Bahraini pro-democracy movement.
These have included campaigns around the Bahrain Formula 1[6] race and the candidacy of Sheikh Salman Alkhalifa for President of FIFA in 2016.