Posts Tagged ‘Bahrain’
May 8, 2012
On May 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), reports and protests the arbitrary arrest and judicial harassment of Mr. Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and FIDH Deputy Secretary General. The Centre was announced only two weeks ago as one of the nominees of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (for a short film on their work see http://www.martinennalsaward.org)
On May 5, 2012, Mr. Nabeel Rajab was arrested by plain clothes police officers upon arrival at Manama airport from Lebanon and transferred to Al Hawra police station. The police officers who proceeded to the arrest stated that they were following orders by the Public Prosecutor, however neither Mr. Rajab nor his lawyers were then informed of the reasons for his arrest.
Mr. Rajab had returned to Bahrain in order to attend a hearing for charges of “participating in an illegal assembly” and “calling others to join”, relating to a protest organised on March 31, 2012 in Manama to denounce the detention of human rights defender Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, former BCHR President and former MENA Director at Front Line.On May 6, Mr. Rajab was accordingly taken to court, where he denied the charges against him. The trial was postponed to May 22, 2012.
Later the same day, Mr. Rajab was presented before the Public Prosecutor, who informed him of the reasons for his arrest. According to Mr. Rajab’s lawyers, charges of “insulting the statutory bodies”, pursuant to Article 216 of the Penal Code, which carry an imprisonment for a term of up to three years and a fine, are pressed against him in relation to tweets he posted deemed “insulting” to the Ministry of Interior. Mr. Rajab replied that he was the author of tweets posted through his account and that he did not recognise the jurisdiction of the Court and the Prosecution due to their lack of independence from the Executive. The Public Prosecutor remanded Mr. Rajab to detention for seven days.
The Observatory firmly denounces the arbitrary detention as well as the judicial harassment of Mr. Nabeel Rajab, which seem to merely aim at sanctioning his legitimate human rights activities. It recalls that according to international standards pre-trial detention should only be used where other measures of restraint are not possible.
The Observatory recalls that these events occur within the context of an intensified crackdown against activists, including human rights defenders, who have supported or are alleged to have supported the protest movement which started in Bahrain in February 2011.
Bahrain: Arbitrary arrest and judicial harassment … – FIDH.
Posted in FIDH, Front Line, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, Bahrain, detention, FIDH, Human rights defender, independence of the judiciary, International Federation for Human Rights, lawyers, MEA, Nabeel Rajab, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, World Organisation Against Torture
April 24, 2012
Today the nominees of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders 2012 are announced in Geneva. The ann0uncement was made by the new Chair of the Martin Ennals Foundation, Mrs Micheline Calmy Rey, until last year the President of and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland. Each nominee deserves its own post! One of the 3 nominees is the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR).
BCHR is a nongovernmental organization that conducts research, documents human rights abuses, provides information to international NGOs and the diplomatic community in Bahrain and advocates locally and internationally. Several of its leaders have been arrested wihout cause. BCHR has continued its human rights activities despite a hostile environment, in particular the numerous threats issued by the Government, warning that further ‘legal’ action will be taken against the members should they continue their activities. Through its website (www.bahrainrights.org) BCHR struggles to promote democracy and human rights in accordance with international norms, encourages and supports individuals and groups to be proactive in the protection of their own and others’ rights. BCHR has emerged as a model NGO in the region on how to continue to operate and leverage national and international advocacy despite a repressive national context. It is only the second time in the 20-year history of the MEA that an organisation is one of the nominees.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA, nominees | Leave a Comment »
Tags: 2012 nominee, arab awakening, Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, BCHR, Geneva, human rights, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, Micheline Calmy Rey
April 1, 2012
A leading Bahraini human rights defender, Al-Khawaja’s appeal is set to be heard in Bahrain’s Court of Cassation on 2 April. He is currently serving a life sentence for his role in anti-government protests last year. The activist is at risk of death after 50 days on hunger strike (according to his lawyer, he has lost 16 kg since his hunger strike began on 8 February). Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, 52, is a former protection co-ordinator with Frontline, an NGO on the Jury of the MEA. He was arrested in April last year for being one of the leaders of anti-government protests and was sentenced to life imprisonment in a grossly unfair trial by a military court last June. “Bahrain must ensure that Al-Khawaja is released immediately and unconditionally,” said Philip Luther of Amnesty International, another member of the MEA Jury. He added: “The continued imprisonment of Al-Khawaja demonstrates that the Bahraini authorities are not serious about fulfilling their promises to release people imprisoned for exercising their right to free spHe has not used or advocated violence in his participation in the anti-government protests, and no such evidence was shown by the authorities during the trial.
Activists in Bahrain have repeatedly called for ’s release. Demonstrators in Manama attempted to stage a sit-in at a main highway on Monday, but were quickly dispersed by riot police. Al-Khawaja, who is married with four daughters, is also a citizen of Denmark, where he lived in exile for decades. He returned to Bahrain after the government announced a general amnesty in 2001. Danish diplomats have visited him in prison several times and confirmed his deteriorating health.
Posted in AI, Front Line | 4 Comments »
Tags: Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, Amnesty International, Bahrain, Denmark, freedom of expression, Frontline, Human rights defender, hungerstrike, justice, MEA, Non-governmental organization
March 13, 2012
Governments are becoming increasingly ‘sophisticated’ in their repression of human rights defenders. Probably as a result of the remarkable worldwide acceptance of human rights as a universal set of standards, Governments that want to continue to suppress criticism are resorting to more and more indirect methods of repression.
The basic universality of human rights is nowadays accepted by the quasi-totality of mankind. In the words of Normand and Zaidi, ‘the speed by which human rights has penetrated every corner of the globe is astounding. Compared to human rights, no other system of universal values spread so fast’. This has not stopped a small number of governments (e.g. Iran, Zimbabwe, North Korea) to continue to oppose the idea and depict human rights as a ‘western’ or ‘foreign’ product, alien to their culture. But the big majority seems to have accepted that there is a crucial distinction between the universality of human rights and its universalisation (or universal application). The first is the moral and legal principle that a core of human rights exists and applies to every person in the world irrespective of his or her culture, country, etc. The second is the process by which these universal standards become a reality. Here one cannot make the same optimistic observation about the speed by which human rights are spreading, but this is not only due to the ever-present gap between rhetoric and reality. The international system itself allows for differing interpretations by giving a margin of appreciation at the regional and national level and by permitting States to make reservations to international agreements. The big question is then, to what extent local cultural, legal and religious practices can be accommodated by the international system without losing its coherence.
In this context one sees increasingly that Governments use ‘tricks’ or at least more roundabout ways to tackle those they want to silence. Recent examples are the disbarment of lawyer Intigam Aliyev in Azerbijan (continuing legal work without license), financial fraud charges against Ales Bialiatski in Belarus (NGO refused recognition, therefore no bank account in Belarus, thus acceptance of grants in neighboring countries illegal), withdrawal of recognition of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Now Amnesty International has come with a report on Ethiopia ‘Stifling human rights work: The impact of civil society legislation in Ethiopia’ (PDF). It describes in detail how the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation imposes heavy restrictions on human rights groups operating in the east African country, and allows for excessive government interference. The result is that Ethiopians have less access to independent human rights assistance. Amnesty International’s Deputy Africa Director Michelle Kagari said: ‘Rather than creating an enabling environment for human rights defenders to work in, the government has implemented a law which has crippled human rights work in Ethiopia. The space to make legitimate criticism is more restricted than ever.’ Human rights defenders risk imprisonment if they violate vaguely defined provisions within the 2009 law, making them afraid to speak out, and often resort to self-censorship, in order to avoid repercussions.
There are surely many other examples and it goes to show that those of us who want to assist HRDs in their work have to become also more sophisticated and cut through the maze of legalistic and bureaucratic measures to unearth the truth about the situation of HRDs. We have our work cut out!
Posted in Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ales Bialiatski, Amnesty International, Azerbaijian, Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, freedom of association, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Non-governmental organization, repression
January 20, 2012
In the series ‘crime (non coöperation) shouldn’t pay’ I am bringing to your attention the behavior of Bahrain. It has denied Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley’s request to visit the kingdom next week. The Government of Bahrain suggested such visits should be delayed until March. The latest denial comes less than two weeks after Bahrain refused to admit Rick Sollom of the U.S.-based nonprofit organization Physicians for Human Rights. This is rather shocking given that only last November the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry had been allowed a surprisingly frank public report. It turns out to be lip service. Brian Dooley himself, the head of the Human Rights Defenders Program of HRF had the following to say about the refusal on 17 January 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. I told the Bahraini government on December 20 I’d be coming, but it wasn’t until January 11 that it responded, saying my trip must wait until March, when a committee set up to implement reforms will have done its work. I said I’d be happy to go now and in March. No good.
Last week, Rick Sollom from Physicians for Human Rights was turned away when he landed in Bahrain. Authorities told him that “all government officials are under tremendous work pressure” and that he should come back after the end of February when a trip would be “more beneficial.”
These are stiff reminders that the Bahraini government should be judged on its actions, not its words. Denying (rather, “delaying”) access to human rights organizations is a hallmark of repressive regimes. Bahrain already ticked many of those boxes in 2011. Mass arrests? Check. Torture? Check? Deaths in custody? Check. Shootings of civilians? Unfair trials? Attacks on places of worship? Targeting of peaceful dissidents? Check check check check.…………………
By shutting out those who report on human rights, the regime confirms that its alleged commitment to reform and transparency doesn’t go any deeper than words.”
FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THE EXCHANGE OF LETTERS GO TO: humanrightsfirst.org
Posted in HRF, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: Bahrain, Brian Dooley, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights First, monitoring, refusal
December 19, 2011
Only a few days ago, 12 December, I reported on a new database on the Independence of Lawyers launched by Lawyers for Lawyers. And here Bahrain comes with a great illustration of the need to strengthen this concept. On December 18, 2011 the Bahrain Center for Human Rights explains how the Ministry of Human Rights [SIC!] and Social development on 7 December overruled the recent election of the Board of the Bahrain Lawyers Society and reappointed the old one. This step appears to have been taken because most the elected members are seen to be from the ‘opposition’. Whatever the truth in this charge, the election seems to have been fully legal and representing the will of the majority of the members.
Fatima Al-Blooshi, minister of human rights and social development, is clearly acting as a government stooge and basing herself on a law written in 1989 for the purpose of controlling the activities of the institutions of civil society, known as the law of Societies. This law has been repeatedly criticized by local and international organizations for violating freedom of assembly. The report of the Bahrain Centre of Human Rights gives many details of how this law was abused in the past including its own dissolution in 2004.
for details see: http://www.bahrainrights.org/en/node/4910
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Fatima Al-Blooshi, Independence of Lawyers, Law Society, lawyers, Lawyers for Lawyers
July 7, 2011
As the human rights crisis in Bahrain continues Front Line and other NGOs express their deep concern about the ongoing prosecution and persecution of doctors and nurses who are facing the prospect of prison sentences simply because they treated injured demonstrators during the recent disturbances. Severe sentences have handed down on human rights defenders, including Abdulahadi Al Khawaja who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment.
In no other country in the world have we witnessed doctors and nurses persecuted on such a scale as a result of their legitimate humanitarian actions, says Front Line: 47 members of the medical profession were arrested, several of them reportedly tortured, and all of whom are currently being subjected to an unfair trial. They feel abandoned by the international community.
Please – show your support for these brave men and women – add your name to the open letter to the King of Bahrain via the link below and which will be published in The Guardian and the London Independent this Friday
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/petitions/bahrainopenletter#sign>
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, doctors, nurses
June 8, 2011
Amidst the many reports on violations of human rights in Bahrain, especially the vulnerable situation of human rights defenders, a surprising announcement caught my eye on 8 June: the GULF DAILY NEWS – The voice of Bahrain stated under the headline “UN raps lies about Bahrain” that: “A top UN official yesterday admitted it received false information about what happened in Bahrain during the unrest. “Certain information which we received about the developments in Bahrain was untrue,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Dr Navi Pillay said as she held talks with Social Development Minister and Acting Health Minister Dr Fatima Al Balooshi, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Children’s Rights Committee in Geneva. Dr Pillay acknowledged that the situation in Bahrain is by far different, and is thus incomparable to ongoing unrest in other countries in the region….Dr Al Balooshi briefed Dr Pillay on the current situation in Bahrain, stressing that things had returned to normal {sic}.”
So I was very relieved to read just now that UN rights chief slams ‘blatant distortion’ in reports of her meeting with Bahrain officials (AP, UPI and many others). The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, sharply criticizes Bahrain for inaccurate reports by its state-run news agency on her meeting with government officials in Geneva last week and flatly denies telling Bahrain officials that her office received “misinformation” about Bahrain’s crackdown on anti-government protesters. Her spokesman, Rupert Colville, says that the High Commissioner “made no such statement and is disturbed by this blatant distortion of her words” and that she will formally request government officials who attended the meeting to issue a correction.
And I now see that the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA) declines responsibility referring to the report it received from the Ministry of Social Development, but this statement contains no such quote from the High Commissioner, see for yourself on http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/459935!
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Posted in human rights, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, media, misinformation, Pillay
April 11, 2011
Human Rights Watch and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies reported on Wednesday 6 April that hundreds of people have been detained or arbitrarily arrested in Bahrain, activists barred from traveling abroad and several protesters killed as security forces in balaclavas and military fatigues resort to excessive force and storm villages, hospitals and news organizations. They called on the UN to hold an emergency session on Bahrain.
The same day Mohammad al-Maskati, the head of Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, said in an interview with Press TV that the “Bahraini authorities are not only arresting the opposition leaders, but also human rights defenders, doctors, a lot of religious figures … anyone who may affect the situation in Bahrain”.
Bahrain’s leading opposition group, al-Wefaq, also says over 450 opposition activists, including 14 women, have been arrested since the uprising began in the tiny Persian Gulf state in mid-February.
On Thursday 14 April Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain center for Human Rights added during an interview with the Voice of America that the situation is ‘very critical’. “You have approximately one for every 1,000 citizens detained right now for political reasons”. The interviewer, Hilleary, asked what Rajab believed the detained persons are going through “I am afraid that many bloggers and [those] who are active in the net – on Twitter and Facebook – are facing very hard times at this point in time”.
The interview then turned to his own risk (“are you fearful of speaking out?”).
Rajab’s reply is worth quoting in full as it shows the uncompromising dedication that many Human Rights Defenders share: “Arrests, harassments and intimidation will never stop an activist who believes in his work and believes in the importance of his work. I do believe in my work very much. I was arrested, as I told you, and I was beaten up, but that has encouraged me to do more activism, believing [that] this situation cannot continue. And this activism that we are doing – it has a cost. The cost might reach – it might be our life – but, you know, once we believe in our work, once I believe in my work, I am willing to see [through] the changes that I am fighting for.”
The international human rights movement should ensure that it does not have to come to such sacrifices and that is what this little blog is about.
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Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, detention, torture
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 