• US: Wrong Time for Bahrain Arms Deal
    Press release
    Feb 8, 2012
    The Obama administration’s decision to move forward on a $1 million arms sale to Bahrain sends the wrong signal to a country that is engaged in serious human rights abuses.
  • Bahrain: Widespread Crackdown; Systematic Abuse
    Press release
    Jan 22, 2012

    Bahrain’s government should address serious and systematic abuses that officials and members of its security forces committed during a widespread crackdown on anti-government protests, according to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2012.  

  • Bahrain: Resolve Travel Ban Conundrum
    Press release
    Jan 16, 2012
    Bahraini authorities should immediately resolve the predicament of foreign residents prevented from leaving the country due to debts, or from working to repay those debts.
  • Bahrain: Rights Activist Attacked
    Press release
    Jan 13, 2012
    Bahraini riot police beat a prominent human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, as he was leaving a peaceful protest on January 6, 2012. The Bahraini authorities should immediately halt attacks on peaceful protesters.
  • Bahrain: End Takeover of Lawyers’ Group
    Press release
    Dec 20, 2011

    Bahraini authorities should immediately revoke an order canceling the results of the election for the Bahraini Lawyers’ Society’s governing board.

  • Bahrain: Independent Commissioners Urge Prisoner Release
    Press release
    Dec 15, 2011
    The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, in its recommendation to review convictions of people for exercising their basic rights, intended that the government should free them and void their convictions.
  • Bahrain: Release People Jailed for Speaking Out
    Press release
    Dec 6, 2011
    Bahraini authorities should quickly address the systematic and egregious rights violations documentedby the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. As a first step, the government should immediately release hundreds of people wrongfully detained or convicted following unfair trials. And it should investigate high-level officials responsible for serious human rights violations.
  • Bahrain: Report Confirms Punitive Campaign Against Protesters
    Press release
    Nov 23, 2011

    The report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry released on November 23, 2011, confirms the systematic and egregious rights violations by the Bahraini government in suppressing pro-democracy protests earlier this year. The report concluded that a lack of accountability by Bahraini authorities led to a “culture of impunity” and systematic violations of international human rights law as well as Bahraini law. 

  • Joint Letter to Secretary of State Clinton Regarding Reform in Bahrain
    Letter
    Nov 21, 2011
    We were pleased to see the delay of the recently proposed sale of arms to Bahrain, and we hope that no sale of items that could be used to repress the Bahraini people will move forward until reforms are agreed to, implementation has begun, and the Bahraini government has clearly ceased using torture and violence against its own people. As we also recognize the “need for dialogue, reconciliation, and concrete reforms,” we look forward to a comprehensive reconciliation process that restores respect for human rights and holds violators accountable.
  • Bahrain: Medics Describe Torture in Detention
    Press release
    Oct 21, 2011
    Medical staff convicted by a military court of alleged serious crimes during the period of anti-government protests in Bahrain in early 2011 were subjected to abuse and torture in detention. Given the fundamental unfairness of the trial, including that civilians were tried in a military court, Bahrain’s High Court of Appeals should reverse the convictions of 20 medical staff when they hear their appeal on October 23, 2011, and order an independent investigation into the defendants’ allegations of abuse and torture.