The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was a Bahraini non-profit non-governmental organisation which works to promote human rights in Bahrain, which was founded by a number of Bahraini activists in June 2002. The centre was given a dissolution order after its former president Abdulhadi Al Khawaja was arrested in September 2004 a day after criticizing the country's Prime Minister, Khalifah ibn Sulman Al Khalifah at a seminar in which he blamed the Prime Minister for the failure of widespread economic development for all citizens. The BCHR is still banned by the government, but has remained very active.
Bahrain's record on human rights has been described by Human Rights Watch as "dismal", and having "deteriorated sharply in the latter half of 2010". Their subsequent report in 2020 noted that the human rights situation in the country had not improved.
Abdulhadi Abdulla Hubail al-Khawaja is a Bahraini political activist. On 22 June 2011, al-Khawaja and eight others were sentenced to life imprisonment following the suppression of pro-democracy protests against the Bahraini government. al-Khawaja has previously gone on a series of hunger strikes while serving his life sentence, in protest of the political conditions in Bahrain.
In the 2000s in Bahrain the government instituted political reforms and relaxed economic controls.
Salmaniya Medical Complex is a public hospital situated in the Salmaniya district of Manama in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Established in 1957 and having a bed capacity of approximately 1,200 beds, it is the largest tertiary hospital in the country. The hospital provides secondary, tertiary, and emergency healthcare services as well as specialised outpatient clinics for the general public. Residency programs in the hospital are either Arab Board or Saudi Board certified.
The 2011Bahraini uprising was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and protests in Tunisia and Egypt and escalated to daily clashes after the Bahraini government repressed the revolt with the support of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Peninsula Shield Force. The Bahraini protests were a series of demonstrations, amounting to a sustained campaign of non-violent civil disobedience and some violent resistance in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. As part of the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the Bahraini protests were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and equality for the 70% Shia population.
Nabeel Ahmed Abdulrasool Rajab is a Bahraini human rights activist and opposition leader. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch's Middle East Division, Deputy Secretary General for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), former chairman of CARAM Asia, member of the Advisory Board of the Bahrain Rehabilitation and Anti-Violence Organization (BRAVO), and Founding Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR).
The international reactions to the 2011 Bahraini uprising include responses by supranational organisations, non-governmental organisations, media organisations, and both the governments and civil populaces, like of fellow sovereign states to the protests and uprising in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. The small island nation's territorial position in the Persian Gulf not only makes it a key contending regional power but also determines its geostrategic position as a buffer between the Arab World and Iran. Hence, the geostrategic implications aid in explaining international responses to the uprising in Bahrain. Accordingly, as a proxy state between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Bahrain's domestic politics is both wittingly and unavoidably shaped by regional forces and variables that determine the country's response to internal and external pressures.
Ahmed Jaber Ali al-Qattan was a 16 or 17-year-old Bahraini who died in a hospital on 6 October 2011 after reportedly being hit in the chest, abdomen and upper limb by bird pellet gunshots fired by Bahraini security forces during the Bahraini uprising (2011–present). Several human rights organizations in Bahrain believe that the use of birdshot against humans is banned under international law, while the Ministry of Interior disagrees. The Ministry of Interior stated that there was a gathering of 20 people in Abu Saiba who blocked the roads and police men intervened to disperse them as authorized. Activists, however, began a series of large protests after his funeral.
The Human Price of Freedom and Justice is a joint report by a group of Bahrain's independent human rights NGOs presenting the main key findings from the ongoing effort to document violations occurring in the state of Bahrain during the Bahraini uprising (2011–present). The 87-page report gives background to the situation, then identifies and document all the types of violations that took place, with the aim of putting out recommendations to the Bahraini government, as well as the EU, US, UN OHCHR and the ICC. The report was published on 22 November 2011, 1 day before the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report was published. The report has found that the violations have been widespread and systematic. Finally, the report urged the U.N. to "send an urgent mission to Bahrain to investigate the deaths of at least 4 protesters killed since BICI closed its doors."
Bloody Thursday is the name given by Bahraini protesters to 17 February 2011, the fourth day of the Bahraini uprising as part of the Arab Spring. Bahraini security forces launched a pre-dawn raid to clear Pearl Roundabout in Manama of the protesters camped there, most of whom were at the time asleep in tents; four were killed and about 300 injured. The event led some to demand even more political reform than they had been before, calling for an end to the reign of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
Medical neutrality refers to a principle of noninterference with medical services in times of armed conflict and civil unrest: physicians must be allowed to care for the sick and wounded, and soldiers must receive care regardless of their political affiliations; all parties must refrain from attacking and misusing medical facilities, transport, and personnel. Concepts comprising the principles of medical neutrality derive from international human rights law, medical ethics and humanitarian law. Medical neutrality may be thought of as a kind of social contract that obligates societies to protect medical personnel in both times of war and peace, and obligates medical personnel to treat all individuals regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or political affiliation. Violations of medical neutrality constitute crimes outlined in the Geneva Conventions.
The Bahrain health worker trials were a series of legal cases in which forty-eight doctors, nurses, and dentists faced charges for their actions during the Bahraini uprising of 2011. In September 2011, twenty of the health workers were convicted by a military court of felonies including "stockpiling weapons" and "plotting to overthrow the government". The remaining twenty-eight were charged with misdemeanors and tried separately. The following month, the felony sentences were overturned, and it was announced that the defendants would be retried by a civilian court. Retrials began in March 2012, but were postponed until June 14. Convictions against nine of the defendants were quashed and reduced against another nine. The Court of Cassation upheld the sentences against the remaining nine on 1 October.
The following is a timeline of events that followed the Bahraini uprising of 2011 from April to June 2011. This phase included continued crackdown, lifting of the state of emergency and return of large protests.
The following is an incomplete timeline of events that followed the Bahraini uprising of 2011 from July to December 2011. This phase saw many popular protests, escalation in violence and the establishment of an independent government commission to look into the previous events.
The following is a timeline of the Bahraini uprising from February to March 2011, beginning with the start of protests in February 2011 and including the Saudi and Emirati-backed crackdown from 15 March.
The Day of Rage is the name given by protesters in Bahrain to 14 February 2011, the first day of the national uprising as part of the Arab Spring. Inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and in Tunisia, Bahraini youth organised protests using social-media websites. They appealed to the Bahraini people "to take to the streets on Monday 14 February in a peaceful and orderly manner". The day had a symbolic value, being the ninth and tenth anniversaries of the country's 2002 constitution and the National Action Charter respectively.
The March of loyalty to martyrs was a protest on 22 February 2011 in Manama, Bahrain. Tens of thousands participated in the protest, one of the largest in the Bahraini uprising. Named after the seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests, the march filled the space between Bahrain mall and Pearl Roundabout. Protesters carried Bahrain's flag and demanded the fall of the government, implementation of a constitutional monarchy and other reforms, with some of them also demanding the end of the regime.
Abdulredha Mohamed Hasan Buhmaid was a 28-year-old Bahraini protester shot by a live bullet in the head on 18 February 2011. He died in hospital three days later, the seventh death in the Bahraini uprising.
The Bahrain Thirteen are thirteen Bahraini opposition leaders, rights activists, bloggers and Shia clerics arrested between 17 March and 9 April 2011 in connection with their role in the national uprising. In June 2011, they were tried by a special military court, the National Safety Court, and convicted of "setting up terror groups to topple the royal regime and change the constitution"; they received sentences ranging from two years to life in prison. A military appeal court upheld the sentences in September. The trial was "one of the most prominent" before the National Safety Court. A retrial in a civilian court was held in April 2012 but the accused were not released from prison. The sentences were upheld again on 4 September 2012. On 7 January 2013, the defendants lost their last chance of appeal when the Court of Cassation, Bahrain's top court upheld the sentences.
