U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch urged Bahrain on Wednesday to investigate allegations by four opposition activists that they were tortured in detention last month. Bahrain has banned media from reporting on the case of Abduljalil Singace, head of human rights activities at the mainly Shi’ite Haq movement, and other opposition members. Their detention on security [...]
A top government official and a leading opposition member have criticised as unfair and unrealistic an annual global report which ranks the country alongside Afghanistan, China and North Korea in terms of political freedom and civil liberties. Bahrain is one of five countries downgraded into the “not free” category of Freedom House’s Freedom In The [...]
Global monitors will meet government officials in Bahrain today over human rights issues. Representatives from the Dublin-based Front Line, who visit countries to analyse the treatment of activists in their native countries, are in Manama to speak with activists and authorities on the situation here. They are due to meet with officials from the Ministries [...]
A human rights activist has criticised the “inhuman” conditions of a Bahraini being held in a Thai prison for allegedly trafficking women to Bahrain to work as prostitutes. Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) secretary-general Faisal Fulad met the suspect, who claims he is innocent, at the prison yesterday. The man claimed he was being [...]
Human rights deteriorated across the Arab world in 2009 with torture widely practised in several countries, namely Egypt, an Arab watchdog said in a report released on Tuesday. The report by the independent Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies surveyed 12 countries and said that most of them repressed human rights activists, press freedoms and [...]
Dubai’s police chief on Wednesday called for controversial labour laws that restrict the free movement of workers to be scrapped. Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan Tamim described the sponsorship system as a “burden†on the UAE’s economy and local population, UAE daily the National reported on its website. “Employment contracts should be between companies and employees,†[...]
Nurses could bring Bahrain’s hospitals and clinics to a standstill unless the government responds to their demand for a 50 per cent pay rise.
Draft law scraps jail terms for journalists In a major move to give a further boost to the Fourth Estate in the Kingdom, the Cabinet yesterday endorsed a draft law to amend the 2002 Press legislation and scrap jail terms for journalists. The weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman [...]
Freedom of expression in Bahrain yesterday received a major boost as the amended law on Press and publications was approved.Chaired by Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Cabinet gave the green light to this important step as Bahrain joined hands with the international community to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. Under new [...]
Several Bahrainis arrested over rioting last December were beaten in custody, according to court-appointed medical examiners. The doctors’ report, submitted as 15 Bahrainis appeared in the High Criminal Court amid tight security yesterday, was immediately disputed by the Public Prosecution. Riot police ringed the court building as the case resumed, after an earlier hearing was [...]
