10 Apr 2018 | Bahrain, Bahrain News, Uncategorized
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In 2011 Bahraini human rights defenders were arrested for pro-democratic activism. Seven years on, monthly protests are reminders of ongoing injustice.
Protesters gathered outside the Bahrain Embassy shouting “free free Abdulhadi” as activists continue to be targeted
NGO’s gathered yesterday at the Bahrain embassy in London to call for the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a human rights defender imprisoned for life seven years ago for organising peaceful protests against Bahrain’s government during the country’s Arab Spring uprising.
Al-Khawaja founded the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights in 2002 and is a founding director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, established in 2011. He was one of 13 human rights defenders to be arrested during the 2011 demonstrations.
Index on Censorship and other human rights organisations have called for his immediate release and for all human rights defenders jailed in Bahrain to be freed.
Monday’s protest not only signalled the ongoing persecution of al-Khawaja, but with repeated calls for his release, highlight Bahrain’s systematic imprisonment and targeting of human rights activists since the Arab Spring.
Front Line Defenders recently reported that all human rights defenders in Bahrain have been exiled, imprisoned or prevented from freely working or travelling. Here, we profile some of those targeted:
Nabeel Rajab
This human rights defender was imprisoned for five years in February 2018 for tweets and retweets perceived as inflammatory by the Bahraini authorities. The posts, from 2015, relate to torture in Bahrain’s Jau prison and the killing of civilians. He has been in and out of prison for peaceful human rights activism since 2012, with charges ranging from “incitement to non-compliance with the law” and “spreading false news” to “incitement to hatred against the regime”.
Nedal Al-Salman
Head of women and children’s rights advocacy for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Al-Salman was stopped at Bahrain International Airport in December 2017. She was prevented from travelling and has since been banned from leaving the country. The same happened in 2016 when she was barred from exiting on her way to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. In April 2017 Sharaf Al-Mousawi was also stopped on her way to a development meeting in Lebanon.
Ebtisam Al-Saegh
Al-Saegh, who works for Salam for Human Rights and Democracy, was one of 22 human rights defenders who were interrogated by the Bahraini authorities in April 2017. They had all supposedly attended an illegal meeting. Most were informed they were banned from travelling. Al-Saegh has been repeatedly targeted by the authorities, sexually assaulted and threatened with rape for her human rights advocacy.
Saeed Al-Samahiji
Saeed Al-Samahiji, an opthamologist, used his medical expertise to help protesters injured in the 2011 Bahraini Arab Spring. In 2012 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involvement but was released in 2013 following an appeal. He has since been repeatedly targeted, serving a year in prison in 2014 for insulting the king and being charged for tweets written in 2016. Charges included “threatening a neighbouring country (Saudi Arabia) for the purpose of threatening national security” and “publicly calling for participation in unlicensed demonstrations and marches”.
Duaa Alwadaei
In March 2018 London-based Duaa Alwadaei was sentenced to two months in jail for insulting a police officer. Her trial was conducted without her present. The charge came after Alwadaei told of her mistreatment by security at Bahrain International airport in 2016. Her husband is Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of the UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. He attended Monday’s protests at the Bahraini Embassy in London, calling for an end to the persecution of the country’s human rights defenders. [/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lkS7Fsyqso&feature=youtu.be” align=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1523361407755-9197b56c-e77e-6″ taxonomies=”716″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
5 Apr 2018 | Index in the Press
Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is an internationally-known Bahraini-Danish human rights defender who is the founder and former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), established in 2002, and a Founding Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), established in 2011. He was Middle East and North Africa Protection Coordinator for Front Line Defenders until February 2011, when he resigned during the popular movement in Bahrain. Read the full article.
5 Apr 2018 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
Zainab and Maryam Al-Khawaja
Seven years ago this month, renowned human rights defender and former Index award winner Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was dragged from his home in Bahrain, tortured, tried in a military court, and sentenced to life in prison for his peaceful role in 2011 protests. Today, 5 April, on Al-Khawaja’s 57th birthday, the undersigned human rights organisations call for his immediate release and for all human rights defenders jailed in Bahrain to be freed.
On Monday 9 April, human rights organisations, friends, and supporters will join two of Al-Khawaja’s daughters, Zainab and Maryam Al-Khawaja, for two events in London:
Protest: Bahraini Embassy, 1pm
Call on the Bahraini Government to release Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
30 Belgrave Square, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 8QB
Front Line Defenders has been organising monthly protests at the Embassy since January 2018
Conversation with Zainab and Maryam Al-Khawaja, 6:30pm
Hosted by Front Line Defenders and ARTICLE 19
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA
Abdulhadi Al–Khawaja is an internationally-known Bahraini-Danish human rights defender who is the founder and former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), established in 2002, and a Founding Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), established in 2011. He was Middle East and North Africa Protection Coordinator for Front Line Defenders until February 2011, when he resigned during the popular movement in Bahrain.
He was violently arrested on 9 April 2011 and charged in connection with his peaceful human rights activities. This was followed by brutal torture, resulting in a broken jaw and requiring several operations, then finally by an unfair trial grossly violating international standards for fair trials and due process. He undertook a number of hunger strikes to protest torture and poor prison conditions.
Al-Khawaja is one of a group of 13 human rights defenders and political activists (the Bahrain 13) sentenced to lengthy prison terms solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Following a grossly unfair trial, Al-Khawaja was sentenced by the National Safety court (a military court) on 22 June 2012 to life in prison, along with seven other members of the Bahrain 13. As the sentence was being pronounced, Al-Khawaja raised his fist saying: “We will continue on the path of peaceful resistance.”
The current situation in Bahrain is dire. The vast majority of human rights defenders are in jail, in exile, under travel ban, or enduring severe threats and intimidation as a result of their peaceful work. Dozens have been abused and tortured. International NGOs and journalists have been prevented from visiting Bahrain to document the government’s ongoing human rights abuses.
At the same time, Bahrain continues to host events such as the Formula One 2018 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix from 06 to 08 April, during which time any protests are sure to be met with reprisals.
Just two days ahead of the Formula One, on 04 April 2018 at 02am, Lars Aslan Rasmussen, a Danish Member of Parliament, and Brian Dooley, GCHR Advisory Board member, arrived in Bahrain in an attempt to visit Al-Khawaja in prison. They were refused entry on the basis that they posed a “security risk” and deported.
We the undersigned call on the authorities in Bahrain to:
- Immediately and unconditionally free Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and all other human rights defenders from prison;
- Provide proper access to medical care and sanitary conditions in prison;
- Allow Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and all prisoners proper access to families;
- Allow international NGOs and journalists free access to Bahrain, including for the purposes of visiting detained human rights defenders; and
- Guarantee in all circumstances that human rights defenders in Bahrain are able to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.
Signed by:
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
English PEN
European Center for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
FIDH, under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Front Line Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
IFEX
Index on Censorship
PEN International
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
6 May 2016 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Middle East and North Africa, mobile
On 7 April 2016, Bahraini foreign minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa told the US State Department during meetings with Secretary of State John Kerry that activist Zainab Al-Khawaja, who was imprisoned on 14 March along with her one-year-old son Abdulhadi, would be freed.
One month on, we are still waiting for her release.
Index on Censorship has repeatedly expressed concerns over the detention and treatment of Al-Khawaja. After being taken into custody, she was transferred to the Isa Town Detention Center, which has been criticised for its poor sanitation and regular outbreaks of Hepatitis C, to serve out her prison term. She was initially denied food for herself and her son.
In October 2015, Bahrain’s appeals court confirmed her conviction for insulting the king of Bahrain by tearing up a photograph of him and reduced her three-year prison sentence to one year.
“Zainab Al-Khawaja is serving prison term based on charges related to her right to freedom of expression and assembly,” said Index’s senior advocacy officer Melody Patry. “Her imprisonment violates international human rights standards and every day she spends in jail brings into question Bahrain’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law.”
“We call on Bahrain to keep the promise made to the US State Department a month ago to release Zainab Al-Khawaja with no further delay,” Patry added.
The US State Department has also reminded Bahrain to follow its promise to release Al-Khawaja and her son “as soon as possible”. The UK government has raised Al-Khawaja’s case “with the Government of Bahrain at the highest levels”, but has failed to call for her release.
The Al-Khawaja family, who have been active in Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement, and have been harassed and targeted by authorities.
Al-Khawaja’s father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, head of the 2012 Index Award-winning Bahrain Center for Human Rights, is serving a life sentence for the role he played in the 2011 demonstrations in Bahrain.
Bahrain must now adhere to its promise and free Zainab Al-Khawaja.
