On the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: The link between all of us is our humanity
On March 21 of each year, the world celebrates the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, in the belief that it is important to bring lasting peace, which is mainly based on the right to equality and non-discrimination, regardless of race, gender, language, religion, beliefs, political difference, etc. Since racial discrimination is prohibited in all the basic international human rights instruments, states have a duty to eliminate discrimination in all its forms by taking special measures to eliminate conditions that may cause or perpetuate racial discrimination.
Systematic patterns of discrimination against the Shia majority in Bahrain undermine their fundamental right to freedom of expression, religion, and culture. Violations of human rights committed against the Shia majority in Bahrain have taken forms of destruction of places of worship, attempts to erase signs indicating their presence in the country, marginalization in the country's historical narratives , misinformation regarding their religious and cultural identity through the educational system and incitement to discrimination and violence against them in the media.
The climax of this ordeal was on February 14, 2011, in the midst of the Arab Spring, where the vast majority of Bahrainis demanded basic democratic reforms in order to restore the country to a model of living in harmony and justice, and instead of responding to the peaceful demands of democracy, the regime resorted to using force to suppress peaceful demonstrations, and demolished the Pearl Roundabout associated with the pro-democracy revolution. The government also resorted to creating sectarian alignments, which led to the fragmentation of the national fabric of the population. At least 38 Shiite mosques were destroyed throughout Bahrain, and the government has failed to fulfil its obligations to rebuild them until today.
The role of the official media was effective in fostering sectarian hatred instead of criminalizing incitement to hatred and sectarian intolerance, which is of course contrary to the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and is inconsistent with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits all forms of racial discrimination.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) invites the members of the Committee to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination at the United Nations, to pressure the government of Bahrain to inform it of its lack of practical compliance with the Convention.
The Acting Head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Nedhal Al-Salman, said: "The link between all of us is our humanity. We are all equal. We should all strive for what is good for each other".
The BCHR also calls on the government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release all Bahraini human rights activists and political opponents who were arrested for the peaceful exercise of their rights, as well as holding those responsible for the demolition of 38 Shiite mosques in 2011 accountable.
We also call on the special procedures offices mandated by the Human Rights Council to send missions to Bahrain to investigate human rights situations and submit reports to the Human Rights Council with specific recommendations, especially the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of minorities, the Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, the Special Rapporteur on the issue of torture and other forms of treatment and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and the Special Rapporteur on the right to education.
BCHR renews its call and urges the Bahraini government to immediately release all activists
The authorities in Bahrain began at dawn, on Wednesday 11 March 2020, for several days, to release hundreds of convicts, in the context of the implementation of a royal pardon and alternative penalties.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) welcomes the positive steps to release a group of prisoners on humanitarian grounds, and according to what we have monitored, the vast majority of those released are a mixture of foreigners and Bahrainis held on criminal charges, while only a limited number of prisoners detained on the background of political issues were released.
In fact, we were disappointed that not more juveniles and inmates suffering from health conditions were included in this royal pardon, and we still are concerned of excluding the head of BCHR, Nabeel Rajab, from the list of those released, as well as the founding member of BCHR, Abdul Hadi Al-Khawaja, and the activist Naji Fateel, all of whom are detained solely for the exercise of their legitimate right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
With the Bahraini authorities releasing some political prisoners and leaving many others behind bars amid denying them adequate health care, it is clear that the royal pardon decision issued on 13 March 2020, which issued the release of 1486 prisoners with the application of "alternative penalties", was limited.
Many political detainees are still behind bars despite their deteriorating health conditions and amid many international and human rights demands and appeals, as the release did not include those suffering from serious and chronic diseases such as Bahraini activist and academic, Dr. Abdul Jalil Al-Singace, who suffers from post-polio syndrome, sickle cell anemia and musculoskeletal disorders; it also did not include the elderly, such as Muhammad Jawad Parweez, who is one of the eldest detainees in Bahrain.
Based on the targeting activists for exercising their guaranteed rights is a violation of all international conventions, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) renews its call and urges the government of Bahrain to immediately release all activists and human rights defenders and to stop targeting them and give them space to work without retaliation or persecution.
On the ninth anniversary of the "Pearl Roundabout" demolition: these protests sparked an awakening in the country about rights and freedoms
Bahrain was among the Arab countries that witnessed protest movements in 2011, but despite its peaceful approach, its protests were met with violence and the government severely repressed it.
The Bahraini protests began on February 14, 2011 to demand political reform, and thousands of protesters set up tents in the Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama (the monument was built in the roundabout in 1981 and is a six-pillar monument representing the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, topped by a pearl symbolizing Bahrain, which is connected to the sea and extracted pearls and its trade). As the wave of protests started, protesters set up a permanent camp in the roundabout, blocking traffic in it in preparation for a prolonged sit-in.
But at the dawn of February 17, and specifically around three o'clock in the morning, the security forces suddenly attacked, and the distress call for ambulances came, immediately after the news of hitting the roundabout, and the ambulances came out between 3:30 - 6:30 in the morning, and then disappeared.
The injured people took refuge in the Salmaniya Medical Complex, which is the largest public hospital in the country and is located in a very close area to the sit-in in the Pearl Roundabout. They considered the medical campus a safe place, while the medical staff was in a state of emergency. Nobody knew the size, number and injuries of those effected.
Cases and injuries arrived at the hospital in private civilian cars, and the crowd flocked to Salmaniya Hospital in a state of extreme agitation and anger after this attack, and two people were killed instantly, Mahmoud Makki Abu Taki (21 years old), Ali Khudair (58 years old), and a seriously-wounded, 22-year-old, Ali al-Moamin, in addition to dozens of wounded and injured.
After eight in the morning, a massive popular uprising occurred, large numbers gathered at the hospital, and the protesters attempted to return to the roundabout, but the Bahraini security and army forces confronted them with teargas, rubber bullets, and fissile bullets closely, to the extent that the head of Issa Abdel-Hassan (61 years old) was shot in a straight aim.
The sit-in of the Pearl Roundabout was forcibly resolved on March 14 with the help of the Peninsula Shield forces, a joint force from the Gulf states at the invitation of Bahrain to protect strategic interests, which was condemned by the opposition. The next day the security forces managed to break the sit-in, and that coincided with the announcement of the imposition of a three-month state of emergency. After the sit-in was overturned, and particularly on the 18th of March, the authorities permanently demolished the monument that was present in the roundabout, and this coincided with a wide-ranging and mass arrest campaigns that included everyone in the sit-in center and everyone who participated in the protest marches in the cities and villages of the country, along with all online activists, the arrests reached to even target whoever "Liked" a post on social media containing any political or movement-related content.
Although the regime in Bahrain controlled the Pearl Roundabout, demolished its memorial and transformed the vicinity of the roundabout into a closed military zone for years, and joint forces from the National Guard, the army, and the Ministry of Interior prevented any citizen from approaching, the political and field mobility contributed to forming a revision movement around the question of democracy and development in the Arab Gulf region.
On the ninth anniversary of the protests, which Bahrainis call the "popular revolution", the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) recalls the events of the Pearl Roundabout, stressing that these protests sparked an awakening in the country about rights and freedoms and won the support of most international organizations and the international community and shed light on the human rights situation in Bahrain.
البحرين: خطوة لتنفيذ قانون العقوبات البديلة
مركز البحرين لحقوق الانسان يرحب بقرار إطلاق سراح ١٤٨٦ محكومًا.
بدأت السلطات في البحرين، وعلى مدى أيام، الإفراج عن عشرات من المحكومين فجر الأربعاء 11 مارس/ آذار على خلفية قضايا سياسية،ويبدو أن هذا القرار شمل محكومين قضوا في السجن بين عام و8 أعوام، وتبقّى من مدّة أحكامهم أياماً أو أشهر قليلة.
واليوم صرّح رئيس الأمن العام بأنهم بصدد تنفيذ مرسوم ملكي بالعفو وتنفيذ العقوبات البديلة ل 1486 محكومًا سيغادرون مراكز الإصلاح والتأهيل ل "دواعٍ إنسانية" قد يكون سببها الفعلي فيروس الكورونا COVID19.
نحثّ الحكومة لإطلاق سراح المزيد من المحكومين خاصة و أنها نفسها سبق واعترفت بـسوء حالة السجون ومشكلة الاكتظاظ التي بالفعلتؤدي لمشاكل صحية وأمراض مستعصية وسوء في الرعاية الصحية.
يرحّب مركز البحرين لحقوق الإنسان بقرار الإفراج عن ١٤٨٦ محكوماً اليوم، في خطوة لتطبيق قانون العقوبات البديلة و يأمل ان يكون رئيس المركز السيد نبيل رجب و مجموعة ال ١٣ ناشطًا من ضمن هذه القائمة.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) welcomes the decision to release 1486 convicts.
The authorities in Bahrain began, over a period of days, the release of dozens of convicts at the dawn of Wednesday, 11 March, on the grounds of political issues.
Today, the Head of Public Security stated that they are in the process of implementing a royal decree of amnesty and the implementation of alternative penalties for 1486 convicts who will leave the correction and rehabilitation centers for "humanitarian reasons" that may be actually caused by the Coronavirus (COVID 19).
We urge the government to release more convicts, especially as it has already admitted the poor prison conditions and the problem of overcrowding, which already leads to health problems, incurable diseases and poor health care.
The BCHR welcomes the decision to release 1486 convicts today, in a step to implement the Alternative Penal Code, and hopes that the head of the center, Nabeel Rajab, and the group of 13 activists known by “bahrain13” will be among this list.
Bahrain: Death Sentences Despite Torture Claims
Bahrain’s authorities should overturn the death sentences following unfair trials against two men who say they were tortured, Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) said today. The Court of Cassation, Bahrain’s court of last resort, will issue the final verdict in the coming weeks.
This is the second time the Court of Cassation will examine the case of Ali Moosa and Mohamed Ramadan. A criminal court on December 29, 2014 sentenced both to death for murdering a policeman, despite their torture allegations. The Court of Cassation confirmed the death sentences in November 2015 but overturned them in October 2018 after a previously undisclosed medical report appeared to corroborate Moosa’s torture allegations. Despite the new evidence, the High Criminal Court of Appeal reinstated the convictions and death sentences on January 8, 2020.
“Moosa and Ramadan have now twice been sentenced to death despite compelling evidence that their convictions were based on confessions obtained under torture,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This is an indictment of Bahrain’s criminal justice system, and the Court of Cassation should not miss the opportunity to correct this grave miscarriage of justice by overturning their death sentences.”
Security forces arrested Moosa, 33, on February 21, 2014 and Ramadan, 37, on February 18, 2014, in connection with the murder of a policeman and other terrorism charges. Both men alleged that Central Investigations Directorate (CID) officers tortured and sexually assaulted them. Ramadan refused to sign a confession, but Moosa told BIRD that he was tortured into confessing to the charges against him and incriminating Ramadan.
“They were kicking me on my reproductive organs, and would hit me repeatedly in the same place until I couldn’t speak from the pain,” Moosa told BIRD in a voice message recorded on December 11, 2019. “Someone at the torture site was telling me, ‘We already have the judgment written. Just say that Mohammed Ramadan is the one who gave you the bomb, and we’ll commute your verdict to a life sentence.’ I decided to tell them what they wanted.”
Ramadan also described to BIRD the beatings and sexual abuse at the CID. “During my interrogation, the torture, beating, and insults wouldn’t stop, even as I was answering their questions…And when I told them about my back pain, they lay me down on my stomach and hit me on the back…they would pull down my pants to show my private parts. I would remain in such shameful condition throughout the interrogation.”
Despite torture complaints from Ramadan’s wife and from the United States-based Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Interior Ministry’s Ombudsman did not investigate the allegations for two years. In April 2016, in response to a question from the United Kingdom Foreign Office, the Ombudsman and the Bahraini embassy in London