Advocacy Associate at Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Michael Payne, and Secretary General of the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory, Mohammed Al Tajer, both delivered oral interventions at the 27th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on behalf of ADHRB, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), the Alsalam Foundation (ASF) and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) . The intervention was delivered under Agenda Item 3 during a Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 10 September 2014.
Michael Payne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xtDh5jtfbc&feature=youtu.be
Mohammed Al Tajer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_4BpUNULQ&feature=youtu.be
Text of Interventions
Michael Payne:
“Mr. President,
Alsalam Foundation, together with Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), would like to thank the Working Group for its engagement on behalf of victims of arbitrary detention in Bahrain. Today, we would like to call your attention to some particular cases of arbitrary detention, which we find to be representative of a broader pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention that is prevalent in the country.
Of the roughly 4,000 current prisoners detained in Bahrain in relations to their human rights, the case of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is particularly concerning. Abdulhadi is in the third year of his life sentence—declared arbitrary by the Working Group—and has suffered torture and ill-treatment in that time. Presently, Abdulhadi is on the 18th day of a hunger strike in protest over the continued use of arbitrary arrest and detention in Bahrain and his life is at grave risk.
Abdulhadi’s daughter, Maryam al-Khawaja, is also a prominent human rights defender. Due to the serious deterioration of her father’s health, Maryam traveled to Bahrain on 29 August and was arrested upon her arrival at the Manama airport. While she now faces charges of assaulting a policewoman, we are concerned that Maryam’s detention is in relation to her work as a human rights defender, and that her detention is therefore arbitrary.
In addition to the al-Khawajas, many other prominent human rights defenders, political activists, journalists, doctors and teachers remain imprisoned under politically motivated charges, including: Abduljalil Singace, Hassan Mushaima, Sheikh Mohammed Habib al-Miqdad, Abdulwahab Hussein, Ibrahim Sherif, Sheikh Mohammed al-Mahfoodh, Husain Hubail, Ahmed Humaidan, Dr. Ali alEkri and Mahdi Abu Dheeb.
In addition to these ongoing cases of arbitrary detention, the Working Group included three new cases of arbitrary detention in its latest joint communications report. These cases illustrate the ongoing use of arbitrary detention in Bahrain to restrict free assembly and expression.
We therefore reiterate the call of 47 Member States to Bahrain in a recent joint statement, to immediately “release all persons imprisoned solely for exercising human rights, including human rights defenders, some of whom have been identified as arbitrarily detained according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.”
Thank you.”
Mohammed Al Tajer:
“Mr. President,
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, with the support of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory would like to thank the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for its engagement on behalf of victims of arbitrary detention in Bahrain.
A recent study by ADHRB and BCHR found that the Working Group had submitted allegations regarding over 60 individuals in Bahrain since February 2011, including three cases alleged in the latest joint communications report. The volume and recency of such allegations shows that arbitrary detention is a systemic and modern practice in Bahrain.
In the joint communications report, the Working Group highlighted the case of an unnamed 15-year-old youth arrested in Bilad al-Qadeem. Government security forces allegedly arrested the youth, transported him to detention, and tortured him during his interrogation in order to secure a false confession later used to secure the youth’s conviction. The court later refused to investigate the youth’s allegations of torture.
In its communication to the government on behalf of the youth, the Working Group reminded the Government that the Convention against Torture obligates Bahraini courts to investigate all credible claims of torture, to prosecute perpetrators of torture, and to declare any evidence obtained by means of torture inadmissible.
Our investigation also uncovered widespread allegations that Bahrain regularly engages in arbitrary detention by securing convictions through coerced confession.
We join the Working Group in calling on the Government of Bahrain to honor its commitments under CAT and fully, impartially, and independently investigate all allegations of torture arising during Bahraini judicial review, and ask that the Working Group call on the Government to vacate all sentences resulting from the use of coerced confession.
Thank you.”
