14 February 2017 – On the anniversary of the 14 February 2011 protest movement, we, the undersigned, are deeply concerned that Bahrain’s human rights situation has now reached unprecedented lows. Bahrain’s precipitously worsening rights record is damaging not just for Bahrain, but for the stability of the entire region. The 34th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, set to begin on 27 February, marks a moment when the international community can likewise express concerns on the continued human rights violations in Bahrain and urge Bahrain to undertake urgent steps toward reform. Bahrain’s 3rd cycle Universal Periodic Review, which will occur in May 2017, provides another opportunity for the international community to raise their concerns concerns. We, the undersigned, strongly encourage international actors to seize these opportunities, and condemn the exacerbated violations of human rights occurring in Bahrain.
Six years ago today began the largest protest movement in Bahrain’s history. Protests driven by calls for the respect of human rights, democratic reforms, and an end to corruption , swelled in size in the face of police brutality. Protesters, centering their demonstrations around the iconic Pearl monument, numbered in the many tens of thousands. Their calls for dignity and democracy were quashed after a month: on 14 March 2011, when Saudi and Emirati forces entered Bahrain and a state of martial law was declared. Hundreds of people were arrested, tortured, and sentenced by military court. Several people died in the custody of the security forces and National Security Agency.
Faced with international pressure, the Government of Bahrain commissioned an independent international panel of human rights experts to investigate and document abuses committed in February–June 2011 and make key recommendations to the government for reforms. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry issued their report, published in November that year, set out 26 recommendations that were accepted by all parties in Bahrain. These recommendations called for accountability, justice for victims, national reconciliation, a moratorium on the death penalty and respect for the freedoms of expression, assembly and association. These recommendations were further echoed by the international community a year later in Bahrain’s second Universal Periodic Review.
Six years on, the situation has regrettably grown increasingly worse. Ad-hoc violence and human rights violations have now been entrenched into Bahraini law. The National Security Agency, stripped of law enforcement powers after their role in torturing Bahrainis, were regranted powers of arrest and interrogation in January 2017. The Government is currently pursuing a constitutional amendment that opens the door to empower martial courts to try civilians. Arbitrary denaturalization has been established within Bahraini law, and to date approximately 350 people have been stripped of citizenship, most of them through arbitrary administrative orders or following unfair trials. The majority have been rendered stateless.
The Government of Bahrain crossed a new red line on 15 January 2017, when it illegally executed Ali Al-Singace, Abbas Al-Samea and Sami Mushaima. All three of the men suffered torture to coerce false confessions that were used to convict them in a deeply flawed trial that violated numerous international fair trial standards. The Court of Cassation, Bahrain’s supreme court of appeals, upheld their convictions in early January 2017, and the government carried out the executions less than a week later. Ali, Abbas and Sami are the first persons executed in Bahrain since 2010, and the first executed for politically-related charges since 1996. Their executions were condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings.
Most leading human rights defenders and political opposition leaders have been targeted with harassment, censorship, arrest or arbitrary imprisonment in relation to their work. Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, faces up to 17 years in prison in multiple cases, all relating to his exercise of his free expression and his work as a human rights defender. Yet other human rights defenders are forced to work quietly or have been banned from travel on multiple occasions, while still others, like Zainab Al-Khawaja, have been forced into exile for their outspoken criticism of human rights violations.
The leader of the Al Wefaq Islamic Society, Sheikh Ali Salman, is serving a 9-year prison sentence, and his party – the largest in Bahrain – was dissolved in 2016. The leaders of other opposition parties are also in prison, including Fadhel Abbas of Al-Wahdawi and Hassan Mushaima of Al-Haq. Ebrahim Sharif, former leader of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad), served four years in prison between 2011 and 2015, and was re-arrested within weeks of his release for making a political speech.
Security forces continue to employ excessive use of force to quell protests, and demonstrators are injured nightly by the use of birdshot pellets and tear gas. The prison population continues to grow in Bahrain, with the Bahrain Center for Human Rights estimating over 3,000 prisoners serving politically-related sentences. Meanwhile, as peaceful leaders have been imprisoned and security forces continue to employ excessive force, increasing violence against the state has also been registered.
There is no accountability in Bahrain. To date, no senior officials have been held accountable for torture, excessive use of force or extrajudicial killings in Bahrain. Senior Bahraini leadership, including the Minister of Interior, who has held his position for 13 years, have never been investigated for command responsibility of the security forces which conducted arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture. The military judge who oversaw the sentencing of hundreds of torture victims, doctors, trade unionists, protesters and political leaders in 2011, Mansour Al-Mansour, was never held to account. Instead, in 2016, he was appointed to a Saudi Coalition military unit which investigates humanitarian law violations in Yemen.
The Government of Bahrain has created institutions which allege to investigate human rights abuses, including the Police Ombudsman, the Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission (PDRC), the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and the National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR). Yet none of these institutions are independent or effective. The Ombudsman and PDRC are tied to the Ministry of Interior, of which they are supposed to be the watchdog. The Special Investigations Unit lacks independence from the Public Prosecution, which is involved in systematically using confessions extracted under torture to prosecute victims, and it is complicit in absolving the state of torture allegations, as in the case of Abbas Al-Samea. The NIHR’s membership is largely drawn from state employees and it has never criticised the government for human rights abuses, and it most recently wrongly declared the January 2017 executions were to international standards. These are the same executions which the UN human rights procedures condemned.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “Bahrain is in the process of establishing a de facto state of martial law. The situation is worse now and more volatile than at any time in the past. Bahrain’s ally, the United Kingdom, no matter its intentions, has used its influential role to help protect the state against demands for rights reform. Bahrain has shown a total disregard for human rights and the dignity of its citizens. The question remains, how deep must this rejection of rights go before the UK criticises Bahrain?”
Husain Abdulla, Executive Director, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain: It is now more crucial than ever for the international community to refocus on Bahrain’s rising crisis. The people of Bahrain have valiantly maintained their peaceful struggle for human rights and democratic values in the face of mounting state repression. Bahrainis need to know that the international community are likewise committed to these aspirations, and that they will not allow short term economic or other interests to trump international human rights values.
We, the undersigned, condemn the Government of Bahrain’s entrenchment of human rights violations. We call on Bahrain to respect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, the right to a fair trial and the protection of all people from torture. We call on the international community to hold Bahrain to account, in particular in the upcoming 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council and Bahrain’s 3rd Universal Period Review cycle.
Signed,
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
European Center for Democracy and Human Rights
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16 February 2016 – Sunday, 14 February 2016, marked the fifth anniversary of Bahrain’s peaceful uprising. Bahraini people took to the streets protesting injustice and demanding freedom and democracy. The authorities responded with extensive use of force which resulted in numerous injuries.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the European Centre for Democracy & Human Rights (ECDHR) and the Justice Human Rights Organisation (JHRO) condemn the Bahraini authorities continued use of violence against protesters and urges the authorities to allow people to exercise their right to freedom of assembly and expression.
We followed up on the events leading up to 14 February and was on the ground documenting human rights violations, protests and more during the day of the anniversary.
Authorities’ Rhetoric
On 9 February 2016, amid calls for protests on the anniversary of the uprising, the Chief of Public Security threatened anyone who “calls to disrupt security and public order in Bahrain.” He labelled any such acts as “illegal”, “terrorizing”, and “disruptive of public order.” Moreover, he requested anyone who witnessed this behavior to call an MOI hotline.
On 14 February 2015, and among the continued and intensified protests, the Chief of Public Security accused protesters of holding foreign agendas, stating that Bahrain “still faced security threats from Iran-backed elements and militants linked to Islamic State.”
The King, his family and government officials celebrated the 15th anniversary of the National Action Charter, which ministers and senior officials claimed “put Bahrain on the path of progress, freedom, democracy and justice, in line with the provisions of the constitution and the rule of the law.” They hailed the Charter as the King’s “pioneering reform project.”
Continued Protests
People organized peaceful protests in villages and towns all over Bahrain to mark the anniversary. Although there have been daily and nightly protests in many areas since 2011, the number of protests increased significantly from the beginning of February and more people took to the streets. From 11 to 14 February 2016, the BCHR documented 157 protests, of which at least 33 protests were suppressed using tear gas and shotgun pellets. Security forces tried to prevent these protests by increasing security measures and putting areas under siege.
| Day | # of Protests | # Suppressed |
| Thursday, 11 February 2016 | 21 | 2 |
| Friday, 12 February 2016 | 47 | 9 |
| Saturday, 13 February 2016 | 43 | 10 |
| Sunday, 14 February 2016 | 46 | 12 |
Arbitrary Arrests
In the week between 7 and 14 February, authorities arrested 89 individuals, including 30 children as young as 10 years old, which is an approximate 36% increase compared to the week before. Over 60% of arrests took place between 11 and 14 February. The highest number of arrests was recorded on 14 February. Moreover, most of the documented arrests occurred on the streets as a result of suppressing protests.
The Bahraini authorities also arrested four American journalists, who were covering protests in Sitra, an island near Manama. Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior stated that it had arrested one of the journalists with a “a riot group” in Sitra and the others were arrested at a checkpoint. The MOI said that they gave false information about the work they do and that they practiced unlicensed media activities.Bahrain has made it extremely difficult for journalists to legally cover protests and opposition activities.
| Day | Number of Arrest | Children Arrested |
| Thursday, 11 February 2016 | 5 | 1 |
| Friday, 12 February 2016 | 16 | 5 |
| Saturday, 13 February 2016 | 17 | 10 |
| Sunday, 14 February 2016 | 21 | 9 |
Use of Excessive Force
Numerous cases of shotgun injuries and cases of near suffocation from tear gas were documented by activists on the ground. Videos and images went viral on social media of security forces firing at protesters and the injuries which resulted from this use of force.
Conclusion
The Bahraini authorities are in clear violation of basic and fundamental human rights according to international human rights laws. They have particularly abused the rights to free expression, opinion and assembly, as protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Bahrain acceded to in 2006. They have jeopardized on many occasions protesters’ right to life by subjecting them to tear gas and shotgun pellets. The Government of Bahrain, with little protest from its allies, continues its path of escalation of human rights abuses rather than implementing reform and having constructive dialogue with its people.
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Five years ago this week, hundreds of thousands of people rose up in support of democracy and human rights in Bahrain. After enduring decades of structural inequalities, corruption, and repression, nearly half the country’s citizen population gathered to demand reform. The government responded swiftly, and severely. Riot police flooded the streets, employing excessive and indiscriminate force to disperse the demonstrations and suppress the movement. Assisted by a Saudi and Emirati contingent of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) Peninsula Shield Force, Bahraini authorities violently put down the peaceful uprising, leading to thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, and dozens of deaths.
Still, despite constant pressure, Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement has endured. With the fifth anniversary of the original demonstrations fast approaching, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) would like to feature the pro-democracy movement itself – every person who risked his or her safety to work towards a better future in Bahrain – as February’s Champions for Justice. This month’s installment will trace the evolution of the movement since its inception in 2011, highlighting individuals who lost their lives or their freedom to government retaliation.
Background
The Bahraini pro-democracy movement – in its current form – can trace its roots back to 2001, when the king promised to implement a series of political reforms through the National Action Charter, itself a response to the civil unrest of the 1990s. The National Action Charter was reportedly approved by 98% of Bahrain’s citizenry in a referendum on 14 February. But as years passed and the government failed to institute these reforms, popular dissatisfaction mounted.
By 2011, opposition groups and political activists in Bahrain were finding common cause with the massive demonstrations sweeping the Arab world. For many in Bahrain, it seemed an opportune – and necessary – moment to revive the country’s longstanding pro-democracy movement; utilizing both social media networks and simple word of mouth, hundreds of thousands of Bahrainis coordinated peaceful protests on the anniversary of the National Action Charter referendum a decade earlier.
Notably, while the Government of Bahrain declined to make good on its promise of reforms in the interim, it had begun to tighten its restrictions on dissent and basic free expression. In the months prior to the first demonstrations, the authorities arrested 23 people on charges of organizing a ‘terrorist network’ to overthrow the government, including prominent activists like Abduljalil al-Singace, Sheikh Mohammed al-Muqdad, and Sheikh Saeed al-Nuri. Around the same time, pro-government media accused two well-known human rights defenders, Nabeel Rajab and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, of having connections with a ‘terrorist network’ and spreading false news about Bahrain. The use of terror allegations to prosecute, intimidate, and discredit reform activists and human rights defenders, and the authorities’ general conflation of terrorism with non-violent dissent, would become a staple of government repression after 2011.
February 2011
On 14 February 2011, the tenth anniversary of the National Action Charter referendum, almost half the country took to the streets of towns and villages across Bahrain to demand political reforms. Peaceful marches and rallies called for limitations on the absolute monarchy of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, proposing the establishment of democratic institutions like an independent parliament with substantial legislative powers.
The government reacted quickly and violently. Though the protests were peaceful, security forces began firing on crowds with rubber bullets, tear gas, and reportedly even live ammunition. Ali Mushaima, a young protestor in the village of al-Daih, was the first demonstrator to be killed after witnesses say police opened fire on the crowds. The next day, security forces assaulted Mushaima’s funeral procession with tear gas and rubber bullets. The officers shot one of the attendees, Fadhel al-Matrook, who later died in the hospital.
As the authorities’ reaction turned lethal, tens of thousands of protestors gathered at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, calling for a new democratic government and an end to the violence. In the wake of the demonstrators’ deaths, King Hamad delivered a televised speech expressing his regret and promising to launch an investigation. Still, on the night of 17 February, after the king’s speech, riot police violently attacked the protestors encamped at the Pearl Roundabout. Security forces employed tear gas and rubber bullets to forcibly disperse the demonstrators, killing five and injuring more than 50.
Ali Ahmed al-Moumen, an engineering student at the University of Bahrain, was among those killed by security forces during the raid on the Pearl Roundabout. Al-Moumen was helping medics treat wounded protestors when government forces shot him with rubber bullets. He later died of his wounds. The following year, on 27 September 2012, the Third High Criminal Court acquitted the police officer who killed al-Moumen, stating that the assault had been accidental.
Reports soon emerged that the authorities were also targeting any doctors or medical personnel who attempted to care for the wounded protesters, and were preventing ambulances from collecting the victims. Moreover, after many activists began to protest outside the Salmaniya Medical Complex, the authorities occupied the facility and harassed the staff.
As the situation deteriorated, the king made several nominal concessions to the pro-democracy movement: three ministers were fired and the 23 people imprisoned in September 2010 on terror charges were released. Tellingly, however, the authorities re-arrested most of these same individuals after the king declared a state of emergency and requested assistance from the GCC Peninsula Shield Force in the form of Saudi and Emirati security personnel.
About a month after the first protests, the authorities demolished the monument at the center of the Pearl Roundabout as part of what The Guardian characterized as “a plan to revert central Manama to life before” the pro-democracy demonstrations. The government’s efforts notwithstanding, the Pearl Roundabout would go on to become a symbol of the reform movement in Bahrain.
February 2012
Despite the government’s violent suppression of the uprising, pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain did not end in 2011. Protestors continued to call for reform all over the country, from the United Nations office in Manama to the Ministry of Labor. Those demonstrating at the Ministry of Labor were demanding the right to return to their jobs after being fired for participating in the protests, a subtler form of reprisal that affected Bahrainis in a variety of professions.
On the first anniversary of the revolution, security forces occupied the Pearl Roundabout and increased the number of checkpoints. The authorities continued to use excessive force to disperse protesters. They frequently effected arbitrary arrests of individuals suspected of participating in protests, or who were present in an area where protests were often held. Security forces also prevented journalists from accessing areas near ongoing protests and attempted to deny international media entry to the country.
Though the government established the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) to investigate human rights violations and provide recommendations for reform in the aftermath of the 2011 protests, the authorities continued to commit extensive abuses in their response to the unrest. Independent assessments of the country’s political situation in 2012 found that the government had fully implemented no more than five of the BICI’s 26 recommendations.
In October 2012, the Ministry of Interior announced a ban on all public rallies, claiming that even many authorized gatherings had violated the law of public assemblies by attacking public property and calling for the overthrow of the government. I
Moreover, in the year since the previous protests, the authorities killed at least 60 people. On 1 March 2012, 22-year-old Fadhel al-Obeidi was protesting in the village of Diraz when riot police shot him with a teargas canister. According to witnesses, the police officers proceeded to beat him after they wounded him. A week later, Fadhel was declared brain-dead. He died on 10 March 2012.
February 2013
By the second anniversary of the original demonstrations, security forces had killed between 87 and 120 people in their campaign to suppress the pro-democracy movement, including 13 children. Still, on 14 February 2013, despite the ban on public assembly, thousands of peaceful protestors once again took to the streets. As in previous years, the government responded with excessive force; reports indicate that the authorities’ irresponsible and indiscriminate use of teargas and shotgun pellets resulted in large numbers of physical and respiratory injuries.
In the village of al-Daih, riot police shot and killed 16-year-old Hussain al-Jazeeri during a protest. Though the government launched an investigation into the incident, a court released the police officers implicated in al-Jazeeri’s death on bail several months later. By the end of 2014, the authorities announced that they had closed the investigation and were not pursuing legal action against the officers.
February 2014
In February 2014, crowds of Bahrainis again defied the prohibition on public assembly and gathered to mark the third anniversary of the movement. Risking imprisonment and torture, activists braved the increased police presence and organized demonstrations near the site of the Pearl Roundabout, which remained under the control of the security forces.
The authorities effected at least 69 unlawful arrests and dispersed the remaining demonstrators by force, causing high numbers of injuries. Many of the wounded were forced to seek medical treatment at home and in underground clinics, as they feared they would be detained at public hospitals. In the years since the security forces first occupied Salmaniya Hospital in 2011, doctors alleged that the government had effectively militarized Bahrain’s healthcare system, using hospitals as a means of monitoring activists.
In 2014, the government also promulgated legislation that outlawed criticism of the king and further criminalized free expression. According to the law, insulting the monarchy carries a penalty of a minimum seven-year prison term.
Between just January and May 2014, security forces killed at least three people, including 14-year-old Sayed Mahmood Sayed Mohsen Sayed Ahmed. Sayed was attending a funeral when security forces fired on the procession. Officers shot Sayed in the chest with shotgun pellets, killing him.
The government also targeted women’s rights activists in 2014. In September 2014, the authorities arrested Ghada Jamsheer, the head of a women’s rights group called the Women’s Petition Committee, on charges of posting “insulting tweets.” Her arrest came after she posted messages about corruption in King Hamad University Hospital, which is run by a member of the ruling family. Though she was soon released, authorities later rearrested Jamsheer only hours later on separate charges of “assaulting a police officer.” Jamsheer has had twelve cases brought against her since September 2014.
February 2015
On the most recent anniversary of the uprising, even after four years of increased restrictions and an intensified police presence, demonstrators turned out in large numbers to protest government repression. According to prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, more people may have gathered in 2015 than in 2012, with some activists trying new forms of peaceful civil disobedience, such as placing teddy bears at the sites of previous protests in order to raise awareness for the movement and satirize the government response.
The authorities, however, applied the same heavy-handed tactics as they had in earlier years, firing tear gas and shotgun pellets into crowds and communities known to hold protests. Security forces unlawfully raided homes without presenting search warrants and effected scores of arbitrary arrests. In early 2015, the Bahraini government also revoked the citizenship of 72 individuals, including journalists and activists in the pro-democracy movement.
This Sunday is the sixth anniversary of the modern pro-democracy movement in Bahrain. Unfortunately, as documented in our report Shattering the Façade, the Government of Bahrain has failed to implement many of the political reforms or human rights protections recommended by the BICI five years ago. Instead, the authorities have demonstrated a consistent willingness to use intimidation and force in order to quell peaceful protests and silence dissent.
Yet Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement perseveres – and just maybe this 14 February will be different.
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