With the hashtag #ReleasePoliticalPrisoners, students and activists all over Europe expressed their concern and demanded the immediate release of political prisoners in Bahrain. On March 17, 2020, Bahrain completed the release of 1,486 prisoners, 901 of whom received royal pardons on “humanitarian grounds.” The remaining 585 were given non-custodial sentences. While this is a positive step, the releases so far have excluded opposition leaders, activists, journalists and human rights defenders – many of whom are older and/or suffer from underlying medical conditions and ought to be prioritized for release.
Those excluded include prominent opposition leaders and human rights defenders, those deemed arbitrarily detained by the United Nations and Prisoners of Conscience by Amnesty International. This includes Hassan Mushaima, Abdulwahab Hussain, Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, Dr Abdel-Jalil al-Singace, Sheikh Ali Salman, Sayed Nizar Alwadaei, Nabeel Rajab and Naji Fateel.
Read the full article and watch the video here.
Bahrain: A Deep Rooted Culture of Impunity
In July 2011, the Bahraini government established the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which was charged with investigating allegations of human rights abuses in connection with the government’s suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations that erupted in February 2011. Later that year, the BICI published a report which confirmed that government officials employed excessive force discriminatory tactics in the execution of their official duties. Moreover, the BICI found that Bahrain’s security forces had killed at least 18 demonstrators and detainees without justification.
The commission recommended that investigations should be conducted into such deaths “with a view to bringing legal and disciplinary action against such individuals, including those in the chain of command, military and civilian, who are found to be responsible under international standards of superior responsibility”. However, while authorities have been aggressively prosecuting individuals solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, there have been few prosecutions of security personnel implicated in the severe and widespread abuses documented by BICI. Those that have been prosecuted have largely been low-ranking officers, and even with these instances, many have resulted in acquittals or disproportionately light sentences.
Read the full article here.
Rights Group Urge US Congress to Support Global Magnitsky Enforcement
The initiative led by Freedom House, letters in support of congressional funding for implementation of Global Magnitsky sanctions were signed by 50 organizations and individuals and sent to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.
Background:
The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (PL 114-328, Subtitle F) allows the president to block US visas and freeze US-based assets of foreign individuals and entities who engage in or support those engaged in human rights abuses or acts of corruption.
Since the Global Magnitsky Act was signed into law in 2016, sanctions have been imposed on 199 human rights violators, corrupt actors, and associated entities in 25 countries around the world, including a notorious businessman who stole billions from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), senior Burmese military officials responsible for atrocities against Burma’s ethnic minorities, one of the biggest arms dealers in the Balkans, and members of the hit squad dispatched by the government of Saudi Arabia to murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This remarkable success is a testament to unprecedented cooperation between Congress, the Executive Branch, and civil society.
Read the full article and download the letters here.
