The undersigned NGOs call on the government of Bahrain to immediately launch an independent and impartial investigation into the death of 35-year-old detainee Hassan Jassim Hasan Al-Hayki amid credible allegations of torture. Officials must prosecute and hold accountable anyone found to have caused or contributed to Mr. Al-Hayki’s death. These torture allegations also raise further[…]
The Government of Bahrain established the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) in July 2011, following the repression of the pro-democracy movement in February of that year. The BICI commission consisted of a panel of international human rights experts who set out to analyze Bahraini authorities’ violations during the pro-democracy movement. The BICI commission then[…]
Since the 2011 Bahraini uprisings, there has been a severe crackdown from the government on the civil liberties of the country’s citizens. Years of mass incarceration, torturing political prisoners, and repressing the freedoms of speech and assembly have finally culminated in some of the largest protests seen since 2011. The June 2016 arrest and detention[…]
On 23 July 2016, Bahraini authorities arrested Khalil al-Ismael as he was leaving the village of Diraz, where many Bahrainis are protesting the government’s revocation of Sheikh Isa Qassim’s Bahraini citizenship. Bahraini authorities charged Ismael with attending an “illegal demonstration” and reading a “political poem” out loud. Al-Ismael’s lawyer Mohammed al-Tajer, who himself is under[…]
The Government of Bahrain has increasingly used travel bans to prevent human rights defenders and activists from travelling abroad. In its ongoing suppression of dissent and political criticism, it has engaged in reprisals against human rights defenders and activists, in particular by preventing them from advocating at the United Nations (UN) or speaking at international[…]