Bahraini Human Rights Defenders Continue to Fight for Democracy

Despite Crackdown, Bahraini Human Rights Defenders Continue to Fight for Democracy

6-13-2011
By Brian Dooley
Director, Human Rights Defenders

Nabeel Rajab is a bit of a hero in Bahrain. In the streets, people recognize him and gather round him; he’s a local celebrity. But when a camera appears, the crowds scatter, laughing – no-one wants to be photographed with a man so openly critical of the Bahrain government. Not these days.

Nabeel, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, is one of a handful of human rights defenders operating in Bahrain. Others have been detained during the government’s crackdown on dissent in recent months, and his house has been attacked with tear gas and sound bombs. He has been beaten up, and is unable to leave the country because the government won’t let him travel.

He’s been speaking out against human rights abuses committed by the Bahraini government for years, including the recent spate of mass detentions, the disappearances, the deaths in custody, the widespread torture, the military trials, the mass sackings of Shias and the destruction of their mosques. Harassed, arrested, beaten and smeared as a terrorist, Rajab continues to document and publicize human rights violations by the Bahraini government.

The King of Bahrain lifted the country’s emergency laws (officially if oxymoronically known as the State of National Safety) two weeks ago, on June 1. It’s hard to notice the difference. The Saudi troops – sent in to support the military crackdown on protestors in mid-March – remain. People are still being arrested. Military courts continue to condemn men, women and children to prison. Last week 15 year-old Mohammed Salman Majid Hassan was sentenced to two years imprisonment for protesting and rioting. His family say he was ill-treated during his detention. …more