Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

30 September 2011

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations human rights office today voiced concern at the harsh sentences handed down this week by a court in Bahrain to medical professionals, teachers and others as a result of pro-democracy protests earlier this year.

Update - 08 July 2011

Bahrain detailed report

Capital: Manama
Population: 1,217,000
Political Rights Score: 6
Civil Liberties Score: 5
Status: Not Free

Trend Arrow

Bahrain received a downward trend arrow due to an intensified crackdown on members of the Shiite Muslim majority in 2010, including assaults and arrests of dozens of activists and journalists, as well as reports of widespread torture of political prisoners.

Overview

Relations between the country’s Shiite Muslim majority and the ruling Sunni Muslim minority continued to deteriorate in 2010, particularly during the run-up to October parliamentary elections, in which government supporters retained control. Authorities arrested dozens of Shiite activists in August and September,

5 July 2011 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the start of a process of national dialogue in Bahrain, taking note of Government steps to improve the political atmosphere by creating an investigations commission, transferring some trials to civilian courts and releasing detainees.
He encouraged the Bahraini authorities to take further steps towards political, economic and social reforms in accordance with the country’s international human rights obligations.

A letter to the Prime Minister before heading to Bahrain, expressing concerns of Human Rights organizations to put an end to human rights violations in Bahrain

Paris- Cairo June 30th 2011
To the attention of H.E Essam Sharraf
Prime Minister of Egypt

Excellency,
In view of the official visit that you will pay to the Kingdom of Bahrain on July 4, 2011, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), together with its member organizations in Egypt, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) would like to bring to your attention their great concern about the current critical situation of human rights defenders and political opponents in Bahrain, in the aftermath of the violent and bloody repression of the popular upraising that erupted in February 2011.

Bahrain’s score deteriorated by the second-largest margin after Libya

26 May 2011

Bahrain’s global peace ranking has dropped 51 places to 123 out of 153 countries according to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The Gulf state, which faced a wave of Shi’ite-led protests in February and March that left at least 29 people dead, was the second biggest fall after Libya which declined 83 places to 143 position.

Head of state: King Hamad bin ‘Issa Al Khalifa
Head of government: Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
Death penalty: retentionist
Population: 0.8 million
Life expectancy: 76 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f): 13/13 per 1,000
Adult literacy: 90.8 per cent

Scores of anti-government activists were arrested. Twenty-five leading opposition activists were on trial, two in their absence, accused of plotting to overthrow the government; the 23 were initially denied access to lawyers after their arrest and some said they were tortured. Other unfair trials took place. The authorities restricted freedom of expression, including by shutting down several websites and political newsletters. The government suspended board members of an independent human rights organization. One person was executed.

Events of 2010

Human rights conditions in Bahrain deteriorated sharply in the latter half of 2010. Starting in mid-August authorities detained an estimated 250 persons, including nonviolent critics of the government, and shut down websites and publications of legal opposition political societies.

The Report Monitors The Media Bias Towards Government Candidates and The Effect of the Detention Crackdown on Media Performance

Cairo , January 8th ,2011


The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information today announced the release of The Arab Group for Media monitoring, AWG-MM, report on the performance of official and independent media during the last elections in Bahrain held on October 3 -31, 2010 . The report presents quantitative and qualitative analysis of audio visual and paper media performance.

The results of a monitoring project that was conducted to evaluate the performance of the media in Bahrain’s latest parliamentary elections, showed limited use of the radio and television channels in disseminating election awareness, whereas, these channels were excessively used in sentimental mobilization and publicizing government officials and figures .

The MPs Elected for the Next Four Years Hold a Great Responsibility in Fulfilling their Legislative and Monitoring Role in Relation to Promoting Human Rights and Not Yielding to Influences and Pressures

The Citizens, Civil Society Institutes, Media and International Organizations have to Urge MPs to Carry out their Responsibilities, Cooperate with them and Evaluate their Performance

26 December 2010

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights confirms in a special report released today and that consists of a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of the Council of Representatives (2006-2010) in the field of human rights that there is a deficiency in the balance between the legislative and executive authorities which falls in the interest of the government. This interest lies in forming a legislative council based on a loyal majority which permits the government to control the legislative process, and weakening the legislative initiative of the MPs by using their right to propose bills, and their lax in taking advantage of the monitoring initiative such as their right in questioning and interrogation, which led to establishing human rights files on one hand and making the Executive Authorities safe from questioning and scrutiny when practicing blatant violations to human rights.

76 children between the prisoners in the latest security crackdown, making them 21% of the total detainees, whose numbers swelled to 355

Special Forces attack random people, especially children who are at risk of excessive use of force, rubber bullets and tear gas. Many obtained serious injuries as a result.

November 20, 2010 - on the occasion of Universal Children's Day

“A child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child”
Article I of the International Convention for the Rights of the Child

Names of children and minors detained, the charges against them, and their ages
(a full list of names at the bottom of the page)

Click to View Larger

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is following with grave concern the serious deterioration of security that comes within the framework of the ongoing crackdown launched by the authority against political activists and human rights defenders as well as all the Shiite villages and areas. The Center is also concerned about its impact and reflection on the human rights situation in the country, particularly in relevance to children. Children were part of the victims of this campaign which included the widespread waves of arbitrary arrests, continuous kidnappings, enforced disappearances, torture which is physical, psychological and sexual. It is believed that the National Security Apparatus is responsible for most of these cases, as well as the continuous physical assaults on the children of Bahraini villages by the Special Forces that are made up of foreign mercenaries. There are 76 children among the detainees from the latest security crackdown, which puts them at 21% of the total detainees, whose numbers swelled to 355. This raises concerns about the fate and future of these children who as a result of these conditions are deprived of their education, and an uncertain future which awaits them just like the hundreds of children, who were deprived from schooling and university education during the period of events prompted the dissolving of parliament in the nineties of the last century.

While Bahraini law prohibits those who are less than twenty-one years of the right to participate in the election on grounds of how young they are, which limits their ability to make sound and correct decisions. At the same time, the authorities hold children, who have reached the age of fifteen, full criminal responsibility and like adults they take full responsibility.