Wednesday, 25 March 2015, Issue #39
BIRD Weekly Newsletter
Report Launch:
Apart in their Own Land
Human rights groups express grave concern as imprisoned activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja goes public with hunger strike
After several unsuccessful appeals to prison administration officials for adequate medical assistance, leading Bahraini human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawajahas publicly announced that he has gone on hunger strike in protest at his continued arbitrary detention and mistreatment while in prison. Al-Khawaja, who began the water-only hunger strike on 2 March 2015, is suffering from serious health issues and is at severe risk of further health complications.
Read the full statement here
Human rights defenders Husain Abdulla and Abdulnabi Al-Ekri threatened at the Human Rights Council
On 15 March 2015, during a side event that was organised by Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), human rights defenders Husain Abdulla, Executive Director of ADHRB, and Abdulnabi Al-Ekri, President of Bahrain Transparency Society and member of the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory (BHRO), were threatened with reprisals by Bahraini MP Khalid Al-Shaer, under the accreditation of the Bahrain Mission in Geneva. Al-Shaer is the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the Bahraini Parliament. This resulted in the need to bring UN security to prevent the MP from attending the event.
Read the full statement here
UN Special Procedures Express Concern over Erasure of the Pearl Roundabout
Take Action
Ask your MP to sign EDM 800 on statelessness and terrorism laws in Bahrain
Ask your MP to sign EDM 609 raising concerns over the UK naval base in Bahrain
Updates from the Ground
45 trials postpones
Early release for trade unionist Mahdi Abu Dheeb rejected
#TwitterNation
Weekly Highlights
Human rights activists demand the arrest of Prince accused of torture during Bahrain uprising
Is Bahrain the New Apartheid State?
Women’s rights activists call for UN to protect them in their work
NGO Statements
Amnesty International: Bahrain: Further information: Tortured to ‘confess’, activist now stands trial: Hussain Jawad
FIDH: Open Letter to the Government of Bahrain: Free all Prisoners of Conscience in Bahrain
Index on Censorship: Bahrain: Jailed human rights activist on hunger strike
Front Line Defenders: Travel ban imposed on human rights defender Ms Ghada Jamsheer
News & Commentaries
Middle East Monitor: UK Championing human rights while creating conflict?
The Huffington Post: Bahrain’s Prisons at their Breaking Point
Yahoo News: Bahrain jails 11 over police attack
RT: UK approves £5bn of arms exports to ‘countries of human rights concern’
IFEX: Bahrain’s Pearl Roundabout: A government’s attempt at rewriting history