09 Feb 2012

The General Secretary of (National Union of Teachers), UK's largest teacher's union, has written to the British Ambassador in Bahrain to call for release of detained Bahrain teachers and request UK's diplomatic representatives in Bahrain attend the appeals on 19th February. You can view the letter here.

05 Feb 2012 - Update

The 14 activist and prisoners have ended their hunger strike on Sunday evening after completing a week.

04 Feb 2012

14 Activists and hundreds of prisoners at the central prison of Bahrain and some other detention centers are are now on their 6th day of hunger strike to demand end to human rights violations in Bahrain and immediate release of all prisoners of conscience who were convicted following unfair trials as confirmed by the BICI report.

The news we continue to receive about deteriorated health of the activists and prisoners are very worrying, given that the prison clinic is not prepared to deal with hundreds of prisoners at same time. Human Rights Defender AbdulHadi AlKhawaja was hospitalized after a drop in his sugar level and blood pressure.

Beirut, 29 January, 2012 – The Gulf Centre for Human Rights and Bahrain Centre for Human Rights would like to express in the strongest possible terms their profound concern following the arbitrary arrest and detention of two medical staff , Dental Assistant Halima Abdulaziz Al-Sabag and Head of Dental Nurses Aqeela Radhi Hammad, which represents a continuation of targeting trends that evolved over the previous months in Bahrain that include medical staff, teachers, students, journalists, worker, as well as human rights defenders.

Dooley: Was it Something I Said?

By Brian Dooley
Director, Human Rights Defenders Program, Human Rights First

17 Jan 2012

With delicious irony, the Government of Bahrain sent out a press release last week declaring that it “welcomes visits by all human rights organizations,” and that its “open-door policy remains in place” on the same day it sent me a letter saying it wouldn’t let me into the country.

I had been planning to go to Bahrain on January 19 to meet human rights activists and Bahraini government officials, as I have on three previous visits in the last nine months.

Hani Alqmich

January 17th, 2012

On January 1, 2012, Mr. Hani Alqmich was injured in the head by teargas canister were fired by the riot police during the assault on a peaceful protest.

Mr.Hani had surgery in the head, but he is still in hospital suffering from injury.

Mr.Hani activist in defending the rights of the unemployed.

Prosecutor Backtracks on Throwing Out Disputed Confessions

JANUARY 13, 2012

(Beirut) – Bahraini riot police beat a prominent human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, as he was leaving a peaceful protest on January 6, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today. The Bahraini authorities should immediately halt attacks on peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said.

9 January 2012

“The Bahraini security forces’ ongoing violent attacks on peaceful protesters fly in the face of official pledges to make amends and to implement the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International.

Deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) barred from entering Bahrain to attend the trial

09 Jan 2012

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today called the trial of Bahraini medics accused of overthrowing the regime and other felonies “severely flawed.”

Despite allegations that the medics’ confessions were obtained through torture, the prosecutor refused to confirm that he will drop the medics’ confessions during today’s trial. PHR has continually called for qualified forensic and medical evaluations of all detainees in Bahrain using the gold standard of torture investigations – the U.N. Istanbul Protocol, which PHR helped to develop.

7 January 2012

Paris-Geneva, January 7, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), calls on the authorities to guarantee the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the safety of demonstrators, including that of human rights defenders, following the repression by security forces yesterday of a peaceful demonstration to call for the release of political prisoners.

Photo showing bruises on face of Nabeel, via Adam Rajab

Update- 8 Jan 2012 19:00

Nabeel Rajab interview with EA: - "I said it was up to him and that he should not use violence, but if he does, the marchers wouldn't react because violence wasn't the solution."

The officer gave them five minutes to disperse. In fact, the attack began 90 seconds later.

Riot police started beating people with batons. Tear gas canisters started flying all over the place,