Salah Al Bandar

Last updated

Dr Salah Al Bander (also Al Bandar, born 1955) is a British citizen of Sudanese origin known for his role in revealing the Bandargate scandal in Bahrain. Al Bander had been working as a strategic planning adviser to the Royal Court of Bahrain since January 2002, then he was seconded to Ministry of Cabinet Affairs in January 2006. On 13 September 2006 he was arrested and deported to London by Bahraini security officials [1] after he distributed a report revealing a conspiracy to suppress the Shia in Bahrain (who form the majority of the population). The scandal that ensued was named Bandargate, after him. Al Bander is also the Secretary General of the MOWATIN: Gulf Centre for Democratic Development, a London-registered non-governmental organisation.

Contents

UK politics

He served as a city councillor in Cambridge for the Liberal Democrats from 2008-2012. [2] He left the Liberal Democrats in 2015.

See also

Related Research Articles

National Democratic Action Society Left-wing political party in Bahrain

The National Democratic Labour Action Society – Wa'ad is Bahrain's largest leftist political party.

Al Wefaq Legally dissolved Shia political party in Bahrain

Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, sometimes shortened to simply Al-Wefaq, is a Shi'a Bahraini political party operating clandestinely after being ordered by the highest court in Bahrain to be dissolved and liquidated. Although from 2006 to 2011 it was by far the single largest party in the Bahraini legislature, with 18 representatives in the 40-member Bahraini parliament, it was often outvoted by coalition blocs of opposition Sunni parties and independent MPs reflecting gerrymandering of electoral districts. On 27 February 2011, the 18 Al-Wefaq members of parliament submitted letters of resignation to protest regime violence against pro-reform Bahraini protestors.

Womens rights in Bahrain

Women's rights have been a cornerstone of the political reforms initiated by King Hamad, with women gaining the right to vote and stand as candidates in national elections for the first time after the constitution was amended in 2002. The extension of equal political rights has been accompanied by a conscious drive to promote women to positions of authority within government.

Bahrain Centre for Human Rights

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is 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.

The Supreme Council for Women (SCW) is Bahrain’s advisory body to the government on women's issues. It is chaired by Sheikha Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the wife of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The current Secretary General of SCW is Hala Al Ansari.

Ghada Jamshir

Ghada Jamshir is a Bahraini women's rights activist and an ardent campaigner for the reform of Sharia courts in Bahrain and the Arab States of the Persian Gulf. Jamshir heads the Women's Petition Committee lobbying for a law that would shift jurisdiction over family and women's affairs from Islamic Sharia court to civil courts.

The Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society is a Bahraini human rights organization established in November 2004 which claims to protect housemaids, and to fight for women's rights.

Faisal Hassan Fulad is an international Human Rights Activist and he was a member of Kingdom of Bahrain's upper chamber of parliament, the Consultative Council, since 1996. Fulad was appointed to parliament by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa from 1996 to 2010.

Haq Movement Political party in Bahrain

The Haq Movement for Liberty and Democracy is an opposition political organization in Bahrain founded in November 2005 with Hasan Mushaima as its secretary general. Several of its leaders were previously in the leadership of the Al Wefaq society, but it also contains others such as Ali Rabea, a secular nationalist and former member of parliament previously associated with the National Democratic Action Society, and Shaikh Isa Al Jowder, a Sunni cleric.

The Al Bander report refers to a political conspiracy by government officials in Bahrain to foment sectarian strife and marginalize the majority Shia community in the country. The conspiracy was led and financed by Ahmed bin Ateyatalla Al Khalifa, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and head of the Civil Informatics Organization and member of the Al Khalifa royal family. The allegations were revealed in September 2006, in a 240-page document produced by the Gulf Centre for Democratic Development, and authored by Salah Al Bandar, an adviser to the Cabinet Affairs Ministry. Following the distribution of the report, Bahraini police forcibly deported Al Bandar to the United Kingdom, where he holds citizenship.

Al-Menber Islamic Society Political party in Bahrain

The Al-Menber National Islamic Society is the political wing of the Sunni Islamist Al Eslah Society in Bahrain and Bahrain's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The president and patron of the Al Eslah Society is Shaikh Isa bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, a member of the Al Khalifa royal family and former labor minister of Bahrain. Prominent members of Al-Menber include Salah Abdulrahman, Salah Al Jowder, and outspoken MP Mohammed Khalid. The party has generally backed government-sponsored legislation on economic issues, but has sought a clampdown on pop concerts, sorcery and soothsayers. Additionally, it has strongly opposed the government's accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Gulf Centre for Democratic Development (GCDD) is a training, information, and advocacy institution dedicated to promoting and nurturing democratic values in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries as defined in the International Bill of Human Rights. It is a non-governmental organization based in London, UK. Its current secretary-general is Dr Salah Al Bandar.

2006 Bahraini general election

General elections were held in Bahrain in November and December 2006 to elect the forty members of the Council of Representatives. The first round of voting was held on 25 November, with a second round on 2 December 2006.

Human rights in Bahrain

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.

The Manama incident on August 26, 2010 involved the arrest in the Seef shopping mall in Manama, Bahrain, of Fakhria al-Singace, the sister of Dr Abdul Jalil Al-Singace, human-rights spokesperson for the Bahrain opposition Haq Movement. According to The New York Times, three women wearing the niqāb and abaya entered the mall and unfurled a banner reading, "It is forbidden to arbitrarily arrest and detain people". More than a dozen plainclothes and uniformed police officers surrounded them, and Fakhria al-Singace was handcuffed and arrested after being pinned spread-eagled to a cafe table. She was released the next day.

2011 Bahraini uprising Uprising in Bahrain that started on 14 February 2011

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.

Women in Bahrain Overview of the status of women in Bahrain

Women in Bahrain are discriminated in every aspect of their life and their personal liberties are severely restricted, both by the laws of Bahrain and by Bahraini society in general. Only one-quarter of women in Bahrain hold jobs outside of the household. Bahraini Women's Day is annually celebrated on December 1.

Day of Rage (Bahrain) Name given by protesters in Bahrain to a day in the Arab Spring

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 background of the Bahraini uprising dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. The Bahraini people have protested sporadically throughout the last decades demanding social, economic and political rights. Demonstrations were present as early as the 1920s and the first municipal election was held in 1926. Ruled by Al Khalifas since 1783, Bahrain was a British protectorate for most of the twentieth century. The National Union Committee (NUC) formed in 1954 was the earliest serious challenge to the status quo. Two year after its formation, NUC leaders were imprisoned and deported by authorities.

Bahrain Thirteen Bahraini opposition

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.

References

  1. Report Cites Bid by Sunnis in Bahrain to Rig Elections, New York Times, 2 October 2006
  2. "Salah al Bander :: Cambridge City Council :: Openly Local". Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2012-05-04.