Pope Francis to Visit Bahrain – a center of human repression and one-family rule

Public displays of friendly co-existence with some religions does not absolve a dictator of his repression and harassment of others. Pope Francis is traveling next month to Bahrain to visit the Catholic community living there and where the religious majority of that country’s citizens are purposely kept down through religious discrimination, harassment, and by force. Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain calls on Pope Francis to reconsider this visit due to the rampant discrimination against Shia in Bahrain or to raise attention to these violations if he chooses to follow through with the visit.

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U.S. State Department 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Bahrain Documenting a government saturated with abuse of power

On June 2, 2022, the U.S. State Department published its 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Bahrain. What is clear after reading this report is the ruling family in Bahrain uses religious discrimination as a tool in the preservation of its authoritarianism and employs public displays of inter-religious co-existence to overshadow its human rights abuses.

Approximately 51 specific individual cases of religious repression, discrimination, or harassment committed by the government of Bahrain during 2021 are included in this report; many more cover general government actions. These were all committed against Shia Muslims and almost all infused with political motivations.

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ADHRB and partner organizations raise joint submission on Bahrain for the 41st session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), FIDH, and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) have submitted a report assessing Bahrain’s implementation of 3rd UPR cycle recommendations. The submission covers different prevalent human rights issues in Bahrain, namely freedom of expression and freedom of association, prisoners of conscience, unfair trials, torture, violations against women human rights defenders and detained children, religious freedom, discrimination against women, and, finally, the effectiveness of national human rights mechanisms. The report concludes by offering recommendations which address the covered human rights concerns.

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Sheikh Abduljalil Radhi Maki (Al-Muqdad)

Sheikh Abduljalil Al-Muqdad is a prominent 62-year-old Bahraini religious cleric and political activist who has been serving a life sentence at Jau Prison since 2011, when he was warrantlessly and violently arrested in relation to pro-democracy demonstrations in the country.

On 27 March 2011, security officers who did not identify themselves raided Sheikh Abduljalil’s house at 3 a.m., raising their weapons at him. They took him from his room, threatened him and tied his hands behind his back in the hall of the house while they searched it. The officers did not present the arrest and search warrants. Next, they took him outside barefoot despite a pain in his left foot due to an injury. Sheikh Abduljalil was placed in the car, blindfolded, and taken to an unknown location.

When he was taken out of the car he was slapped and then officers interrogated him late into the night. In the morning, they brought him to Al-Qurain Prison. He was not permitted to contact a lawyer, and was only allowed to call his family for new clothes.

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