Documenting the Dire Human Rights Situation in Bahrain

Activists to track Bahraini rights abuses
17 March, 2012 – Al-Akhbar

Leading human rights activists have established a new website to highlight abuses of power by the Bahraini state.

The website, bahrainwatch.org, tracks and records the government’s promises of reform and highlights when they fail to fulfill them.

Last year the government established the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) to look into allegations of abuse during the crackdown on peaceful protesters in March 2011.

The BICI report made a series of suggestions, including reinstating all those who had been fired for protesting, increasing freedom of speech and establishing an independent commission to monitor the government’s progress.

The government has said it will implement the report but activists responded that it has failed to deliver on many of its promises.

Ala’a Shehabi, one of the site’s creators, said the idea came from frustration with the lack of reform.

“Everyone keeps screaming on about how the government are not doing what they say on Twitter and other places but no one has set up a platform where you go and document these things in a consistent way – one central place where you can get analysis,” she said. …more