Nabeel Rajab, BCHR – winner of Bindmans Award for Advocacy at the Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012

Index on Censorship has called upon the Bahraini government to release 2012 Index  Freedom of Expression Award winner Nabeel Rajab and other prisoners of conscience, and honour its promises to uphold freedom of expression.

Index’s Chief Executive Kirsty Hughes said:

“The continued imprisonment of Nabeel Rajab and other activists shows that Bahrain is not serious about reform. The targeting of human rights activists and imprisonment of prisoners of conscience shows that government commitments to reform are for now meaningless.

“Index calls on the Bahrain government to respect  the right to peaceful protest and the right to free speech, to end its violations of these rights and to implement fully the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission for Inquiry (BICI).”

According to the Project on Middle East Democracy, the government of Bahrain has only succeeded in fully implementing three of the 26 recommendations made by the Bahrain Independent Commission for Inquiry (BICI) report in November 2011.

Members of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) have faced repression from Bahrain’s regime for their tireless work documenting human rights violations committed by the government, since popular protests began on 14 February 2011. According to BCHR, there have been 89 deaths since the start of the country’s uprising.

In March 2012, accepting the Index on Censorship Advocacy award on behalf of BCHR, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab said that the international community heard little about uprisings in Bahrain because “we have oil”. He is currently serving a two-year sentence for organising so-called “illegal gatherings”. The founder of BCHR, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, is on hunger-strike to protest his ill-treatment in prison. Alkhawaja is currently serving a life sentence for allegedly plotting to overthrow the ruling regime. His daughter Zainab is also on hunger strike and serving a three-month jail sentence.

In April, international attention will once again turn to Bahrain when it hosts the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Last year, the Bahraini government attempted to use the race to gain positive international attention while continuing to clamp down on protesters who are critical of the regime.

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This article was originally published in The Telegraph.

In the pages of The Daily Telegraph on Monday, John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police now working in Bahrain advising the government on police reform, claimed that “Bahrainis are bewildered by the world hostility”, and by headlines that suggested a serious safety risk to Formula One teams.

Last weekend, all eyes were on Bahrain, and not for the reason the government had hoped. Coverage of Sebastian Vettel’s victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix was drowned out by a mess of stun grenades, burning tyres, tear gas and Molotov cocktails. Bahrain’s ongoing unrest pushed human rights organisations to call for the race to be cancelled.

Yates says the F1 teams’ safety was never at risk – but in the lead up to the race he claimed that live rounds could be used to make ensure their cars could speed around the Sakhir track. Does Yates seriously expect the world’s press to ignore incidents that included a Force India team mechanic narrowly avoiding being hit by petrol bombs during a clash between protesters and police?

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and Bahraini officials insisted that the show must go on, saying that sport has nothing to do with politics. Sports journalists were left to cover the violent crackdown on protesters and death of one protester – Salah Abbas Habib – on Saturday. His death and the death earlier in the month of another protester are a testament to the failure of reforms in the country.

Those who defend Bahrain’s government claim it is improving – acting to protect human rights, regulate policing and create more transparency. But as we saw this weekend, the situation on the ground is deteriorating. The country has been plagued by protests, peaceful and violent. The protesters do not believe reform is coming.

The Bahrain Independent Commission for Inquiry (BICI) was created by King Hamad to investigate human rights violations in the months following the start of unrest on 14 February last year. The Commission’s report, released on 23 November, was met with scepticism from activists and members of civil society. I went to Bahrain for the report’s launch, hoping it would prove more than an elaborate PR exercise. Although government officials are quick to point to the number of committees established and the long list of international experts enlisted in helping the regime move past the problems of last year, there has been no real progress. Not a single senior figure has been held to account.

Bahrain should be congratulated for recognising the appalling human rights violations committed during last year’s crackdown and for proposing reforms but it now needs to make good on those proposals. Words are yet to be put into actions.

Promises of reform carry little weight when the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) reports that approximately 600 political prisoners have yet to be freed, despite the commission’s call for their release.

Maryam Alkhawaja, head of the Foreign Relations Office at BCHR, has warned that without the international community holding Bahrain accountable for human rights violations, the country will see “the same kind of excessive force, systematic torture, and daily human rights violations” documented by the organisation during the past year. Alkhawaja added that if international bodies do take action, activists “might be lucky enough to see a different approach for Bahrain”.

Bahrain has been given the space and time to take implementation seriously, and the international community must place pressure on the government to reform where it counts. This means that we shouldn’t be doing business with the regime, and we most certainly should not be selling them arms or inviting them to lunch.

Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index on Censorship 

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Sir, As you report, there is opposition from within Bahrain to the Formula One motor race going ahead as scheduled at the end of next week (“Bahrain youth group targets Grand Prix”, April 9). From outside Bahrain, we would agree that the political, security and human rights context in Bahrain today all militate against this high-profile, profitable business and sporting event going ahead in a “business as usual” way: political freedoms deserve the support of business too.

As has been shown time and again in the multifarious protests of the Arab Spring in the past 17 months, people across the Arab world want political freedom – including freedom of speech and freedom of assembly – as well as economic opportunities and growth. This is a combination international businesses should find it in their own interests to support.

Bahrain, though, continues to turn away from reform and support of basic rights towards repression. Bahrain opposition leader Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is in critical condition, having spent more than 60 days on hunger strike in protest at his detention.

Despite repeated calls for his release from international rights organisations and a statement from UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the Bahraini government has refused to release him to Denmark, where he is a citizen.

Despite this, the Bahraini government wants to bask in the positive international publicity it anticipates receiving through the Formula One motor race going ahead. Yet all the signs are that the government is likely to intensify its harsh clampdown on local activists before and during the Grand Prix, with these and other so-called “security measures” risking endangering human rights activists, racegoers and Formula One team members alike.

Until the government of Bahrain shows a real commitment to reforms promised in the Bahrain Independent Commission for Inquiry report last November and respects the fundamental human rights of its own citizens, international events such as the Bahrain Grand Prix should not proceed.

Kirsty Hughes, Chief Executive, Index on Censorship

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HM Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

Your Majesty,

We, the undersigned, call on the government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release leading human rights activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, whose life is now in grave danger as he enters the 63rd day of his hunger strike, begun in protest at his detention and treatment.

We call for his urgent release on humanitarian grounds, and in conformity to the findings and recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).

If Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is not released and dies in prison, the Bahrain government will signal a total failure of political will in addressing the human rights violations that occurred in 2011. This would further alienate the already fragile trust of opposition groups and instigate a dangerous collapse of civil society. Mr Alkhawaja is deeply revered and respected by much of the population of Bahrain, as well as the wider region and world. His death could dangerously inflame national tensions which are already escalating.

Mr Alkhawaja was arrested on 8 April 2011 and subjected to cruel and abusive treatment by government employees. A forensic team working for the BICI team investigated his case.

The BICI team found that his jaw was broken “immediately after the arrest” which required “major surgery” to heal. In hospital he was “blindfolded the whole time and handcuffed to the bed with tight cuffs”. He was discharged from hospital, against the recommendations of his doctor, and placed in “solitary confinement in a small cell” where “there was no fresh air”. He experienced “regular beatings at night”, sexual assault and other torture.

Mr Alkhawaja was tried before a military tribunal and given a life sentence for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the Bahrain government. Both his trial and subsequent appeal, which was also heard before a military tribunal, have been heavily criticised by major human rights and legal organisations. The BICI further found that after he was sentenced, he was “beaten by guards”. The findings of the BICI report were also very critical of the quality of the justice Mr Alkhawaja and other political leaders received.

Recommendation 1720 of the BICI report calls for all such military trials to be reviewed before a civilian court. Mr Alkhawaja’s life sentence was due to be reviewed before a civilian court on 2 April 2012. However, on that day a judge postponed the review until 23 April. Mr Alkhawaja has now been on hunger strike for 63 days. The consequent deterioration of his health means that he will likely be dead or comatose before that date.

Mr Alkhawaja began his hunger strike on 8 February 2012. He has stated that he will continue this strike until “freedom or death”. There is no question of his commitment to this stance.

If your government allows Mr Alkhawaja to die in prison, it will send a stark message that it means to ignore the most important recommendations of the BICI report. The message will spread not just across Bahrain, but internationally, to citizens and governments who have relied upon your assurances that you are committed to reform.

You have the power to release Mr Alkhawaja. It will be a stain on Bahrain if his death comes before his freedom.

In the interests of justice and reconciliation in your country, we urgently and respectfully ask you to release Mr Alkhawaja immediately and unconditionally,

Signed:

Jan Kavan, former President of the UN General Assembly and former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
The Right Honourable Lord Avebury
Jeremy Corbyn, Member of Parliament
Richard Burden, Member of Parliament
Roger Williams, Member of Parliament
Sarah Ludford, Member of the European Parliament

Professor Rasha Abdulla (The American University in Cairo)
Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed (Kings College London)
Professor Rosalyn Baxandall (SUNY, Old Westbury)
Professor John Berg (Suffolk University)
Professor Cyrus Bina (University of Minnesota)
Professor Susan Breau (Flinders University, Australia)
Professor E. Wales Browne (Cornell University)
Professor Colin S. Cavell (formerly University of Bahrain)
Professor F Gregory Gause III (University of Vermont)
Professor Arturo Giraldez (University of the Pacific)
Professor Craig Toby Jones (Rutgers University)
Professor Joan B. Landes (Pennsylvania State University)
Professor Emeritus Jesse Lemisch (City University of New York)
Professor Scott Lucas (University of Birmingham)
Professor Khaleel Mohammed (San Diego State University)
Professor Sajjad Rizvi (University of Exeter)
Professor Sahar Shafqat (St. Mary’s College of Maryland)
Professor William H. Slavick, (University of Southern Maine)
Professor Marlyn Tadros (Northeastern University)
Professor Charles Tripp (SOAS, University of London)
Dr Michele Aaron (University of Birmingham)
Dr Kathleen Cavanaugh (National University of Ireland, Galway)
Dr Christopher Davidson (Durham University)
Dr Mike Diboll (formerly of University of Bahrain)
Dr Harvey L Paige (Fulbright Scholar, University of Bahrain, 2007-8)
Hugo Radice (Life Fellow, University of Leeds)

American Council for Freedom in Bahrain
Bahrain Justice & Development Movement
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Campaign for Peace and Democracy (USA)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Doctors in Chains
El Nadim Center for the Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence
The Free Egyptian Movement
Front Line Defenders
Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Egypt
Index on Censorship
Millennium Youth Foundation, Ghana
Muslims for Peace
No to Military Trials for Civilians, Egypt
ONGD Africando
PEN International
Women Living Under Muslim Laws
Words of Women from the Egyptian Revolution
Youth for Human Rights, Ghana

Ali Alaswad, Former Bahraini MP (2010-2011)
Mohamed Alwan, Former Iraqi Ambassador
Mary Dean, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Gail Daneker, Friends for a Non-Violent World
Sara Dennedy, Front Line Defenders
Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair, Writers in Prison Committee
Katherine Gallagher, International Board Member of International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH); Senior Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights
Stanley Heller, Chairperson Middle East Crisis Committee
Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Mr. Malainin Lakhal, Secretary General of the Saharawi Journalists and Writers Union
Michael Letwin, Esq., Former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Kathy McKay, Director, Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project
Tara O’Grady, Bahrain Rehabilitation & Anti Violence Organisation
John Pilger, Writer and Broadcaster
Danny Postel, Stand Up! Chicago
William Powell, Welsh Assembly Member
Patricia Sanchez, Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group
Peter Tatchell, Human Rights Campaigner
Lawrence Weschler, Director, New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University
Hicham Yezza, Editor-in-chief, Ceasefire Magazine

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