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Bahrainis Await U.S. Response to Human Rights Abuses

5-20-2011

By Marc Jayson Climaco
Program and Communications Assistant
for Human Rights Defenders Program
Bahrainis Await U.S. Response to Human Rights Abuses [ 7 min 25 s | 10.19 MB ] Play in Popup | Download (352)

Sign the petition: Demand to free Bahraini activists, medical workers and athletes!

Listen to the latest podcast for an analysis on President Obama’s Middle East speech and an outline of what the U.S. could take to support democracy and human rights in Bahrain and other countries in the region.

President Obama took an impressive first step towards defining a framework for U.S foreign policy in the Middle East that is grounded in sustained support and promotion of human rights and democracy.

Having just returned from Bahrain on a fact-finding mission, Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley welcomes the specific references to Bahrain in the President’s speech. In a report entitled, Bahrain: Speaking Softly, Dooley documents cases of torture and illegal detentions, outlining the human rights violations and abuses committed by the Bahraini government towards pro-democracy activists and supporters.

With the U.S. being muted over the past few months about abuses in Bahrain, it has much work to do to help people in the region establish universal rights—including the right to elect representatives. Human Rights First is calling for immediate U.S. government action in support of human rights and human rights defenders in Bahrain.

Podcast produced by Stephen Brownell.


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Posted in Blog | 18 Comments »

  • abdulla

    I think the US government should look at countries like Iran and Syria where hundreds of people are being killed on a daily basis just because they demand more democratic reform instead of looking at Bahrain where a political and economic reform project was launched by H.M the King ten years ago. The uprise in Bahrain is not like anywhere else in the arab world protesters were violent killing expats and police men and occupying the biggest hospital in the middle east region preventing patients from receiving treatment which lead to the death of many people. Clearly the protests in Bahrain was not related to real demands of reform.

  • ahmed isa

    Leave Bahrain alone and we will be fine.. Dont talk on behalf of the Bahraini people.. the protesters make up a small proportion of the Bahraini people and they were not peaceful !!!!

    • sweet yousfe

      R u kidding me?What about the girls from the all girls school?they were not peaceful?they were as young as 12 but the police and the armed force broke in the school and were beaten and threaten that they will rape them,what about getting tortured in prison and medical staff being drag from hospital and beat in the campus of the hospital for doing there job(HELPING ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE).Those are kind of Human rights we are speaking about not religious or politics.

      • A TRUE Bahraini

        Dear traitor you know that we ALL KNOW that ALL what you say is Lies ,,,, you are a true and a live picture of your LLLLLONG History of Liars and Traitors in the history of Persia and ARRABIA even before Islam came and made us Brothers But you still are traitors and liars and will never be true Citizens of THE ARABIAN GULF BECAUSE YOU are Persian through and through to the bone and will never be a TRUE Muslim ,,,,Enough said

    • bimbo shooter

      srsli..leave bahrain awl alone n eveything will b perfecy. be united be one no one can break us.islam says to b e united not to fight in groups or else..so be a single nation n fight for it…not wid each others

      • expat ji

        Smart people are there around the world who are trying to apply devide and rule. May be it is a question of their self existence for which they need these type of restless situation or violence. May be their shattered economy will revive by this way only. Some reptiles are there who very often changes their colours. Everyone should be cautious about that.

  • Jaffer

    Your efforts are most appreciated and welcome. The human rights violations the regime in Bahrain commits against its own people are far beyond any explanation. Dividing and treating its natives on sectarian basis, obliterating its natives via nationalization, detention of people for their political opinions, detention of doctors and nurses for just treating political protesters!, hijacking and detention of injured protesters from the hospitals, preventing ambulances from reaching to injured protesters, detention of photographers and journalists just for covering protests’ news, detention of lawyers for defending protesters!, detention of innocent men, women and underaged, torturing protesters systematically while in prison, killing imprisoned, sexually harrassing and insulting detainees, detaining hostages of whom their relatives are wanted, destroying peoples’ properties, stealing peoples’ belongings, threatening, beating and insulting families and their kids especially at checkpoints, raiding houses usually late at nights with no permissions, destroying worship places (mosques) of a particular sect, prohibiting websites, arresting activists and reporters including activists on social networks… etc. This is just to mention few!!!

  • Jordan Ess

    As a recently enlightened occidental I urge you to view the following http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nayJNYskzp4
    These protests were nothing short of domestic terrorism and a few innocent people got involved.

  • https://profiles.google.com/u/0/Osama1964/about Osama

    Practicality require these steps or these actions
    ——–
    Representatives,local or international lawyers,and courts have failed to provide minimum justice to individuals and they are clearly over powered by conspiracies,individual complains (particularly those who suffers physical juries )must replace groups complains,with computers and large staff of human right offices or any similar org. it is possible to handle each person case without connecting him to any groups or net,applications for complains could be created via the internet , filled,and submitted
    —–
    This advise or suggestion is for all individuals worldwide without restrictions to any nationality or residency
    ——–
    Secrets age or decades are over , everything and everybody must come public , obvious , and clear

  • http://channel-f.com sajid

    The peace loving & just people of the world should speak up.the bahrani regime is worst than hittler.
    atleast he did not attack his own people.I have stayed in bahrain in the ninties & have seen the brutality of the regeme.young people simply vanish & nobody dare inquire about them.

  • Ray Hanson

    I went to bahrain to see the facts for myself. The picture is clear to me and I am very sad to state that the information conveyed by the so called “Human Right Organizations” are misleading. It would be more approriate to call them “Human Rights Organizations FOR SOME HUMANS”. Hundreds of labor workers from the Indian subcontinents have been killed and injured by the “Shia” protestors. Police Officers were ran over by SUV twice and killed instantly. One man who works at a local mosque as “the person who calls for prayer; I think” was attacked in his own home by the Shia group and his tongue was amputated.I thoght this was portrayed as peaceful demonstations, but they have been violent committed by violent and primitive people who are willing to destroy their own country!!

  • Gadeer

    You should be fair to the Bahrainis when publishing such articles about the siuation in Bahrain, those protestors who your defending are minority of the Bahraini citizens, that caused fear to the people and children! They started their protest with so called “political reforms” which all people demand, but it appeared that they don’t really want reforms, what they’re aiming for is to take over our beloved Bahrain and turn it to an extremist islamic republic just like IRAN! They have blocked the roads to prevent us from going to work in a step to put pressure on the country’s economy! They have also stopped people from accessing some roads and killed police offers, citizens! children was also involved in all this political crisis, they let them out of school carried them on big trucks!

    you can check those videos to see what really happened in Bahrain:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ArgPXLgKM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JEU9BQBPrs

    2 police officers were killed in a ran over car accident:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvaf9hF_lt4

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdjZFWbfBp8&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6LN0VCIUE4&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF5LIDeuGEU&feature=related

    What about killing innocent expats in Bahrain by anti govt protestors? Or HR only defends SOME HUMANS!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIVg-WAAxE&skipcontrinter=1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIVg-WAAxE&skipcontrinter=1

  • mia

    clearly human rights are with one eyes!! i think you should take the asians here into consideration. the protesters you are defending are criminals they have burned people alive since 1990, for your information the world condemned what they have done in the 1990′s and for your information the leaders of the 1990′s are same for 2011 except al jamri who has passed away!! can you explain how can you call them innocent when they kill and torture? or do you consider the Asians and us here as NON HUMANS? you people encourage killing the poor indians who came to work in our country as well as terrorism
    thanks

  • Feroz

    What an beutiful and lovely our Island Bahrain is and what these people have made,they have not left even a single chance to kill beautiful Bahrain, People were afraid to go out, no jobs, no schools, no shops nothing was opened due to this monter people bastards,and they were demanding that the students,the teenagers those who killed many expacts,police man, pakistani,bangalis and other peoples they were innocent and these killers were sentenced to death and lifetime jail by the government that was 110% right other wise there will be some more murderers and killer would have taken birth,these teenagers they dont have any idea and they are not matured these were the words the talks of shiya’s people but just think for a second if they are so innocent and if they are not matured then they should not know all these things what they do to Bahrain but they were doing all this things like its a fashion and they were enjoying it and they were brought up by all this noncense things with pre planned,the Perl round about was destroyed because of these criminal people and Bahrain had no peace after that but still there are small small problems going here and there,which we have to stop and keep our Bahrain Bloom always like the Flowers and Cut off all the riots and all those peoples those who try to burn Bahrain.

  • Feroz

    Just kill the people who want to destroy Bahrain and the other innocent peoples, they have burned and cut the peoples like fish, i ask why?why?why?why?why? these all innocent peoples the asian and all the expacts these all people also have their families far away they came here to serve Bahrain and for jobs so that they can keep their families and serve their old parents and also they have a lot of dreams for their future so they come to Bahrain to fulfill their wishes and serve the country for what country needs from him, but these protesters killed many expacts and they also should get the same gift what they have given to others,they also should taste the same sweet things which they gave to others and just hang them to death and cut them off forever, really shame on these kind of peoples surely these peoples will not get the place in the hell also,these type of people will burn for ever and ever,what all dirty activities they do in the Pearl round about at the night time, i feel shame to bring it on my mouth,you people know well what is it,they got married over there,having dirty unsatisfied sexual activities. These is what they call Peacefull demonstration,shameless people bullshit,very good peacefull demonstration you people have made, shame on you and go to hell, let Allah take care of you fools.

  • ghani

    Bahrain always respect and practice Human Rights towards to all of its citizens & expatriates irrespective of religion, sect or gender much better than all the developed countries, except criminals involved in heinious crime trialled in court, given fair chance to defend with providing legal help.
    The recent problem is not a socio-political but sectarian by brain-washed youths by the religious leaders inside @ outside of the country.

    GOVERNMENT HAS GIVEN ITS CITIZEN NO-TAX (TAX FREE NATION), FREE EDUCATION, FREE HEALTH CARE, HOUSING, SUBSIDISED ELECTRICITY & PATROL AND UNEMPLOYMENT ALLOWANCES, FAMILY DAIRNESS ALLOWANCE ALL ON MONTHLY BASIS. FREE 100% HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP ON MERIT BASIS. SUBSIDISED EADIBLE ITEMS LIKE WHEAT(FLOUR) MUTTON, CHICKEN. THESE PRICES ARE NOT REVISED FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS.

    THINK BEFORE ANY COMMENT YOUR COMMENTS MUST BE JUSTIFIED AND LEGITIMATE.
    THANKS

  • ali

    You should be fair to the Bahrainis when publishing such articles about the siuation in Bahrain, those protestors who your defending are minority of the Bahraini citizens, that caused fear to the people and children! They started their protest with so called “political reforms” which all people demand, but it appeared that they don’t really want reforms, what they’re aiming for is to take over our beloved Bahrain and turn it to an extremist islamic republic just like IRAN! They have blocked the roads to prevent us from going to work in a step to put pressure on the country’s economy! They have also stopped people from accessing some roads and killed police offers, citizens! children was also involved in all this political crisis, they let them out of school carried them on big trucks!

    you can check those videos to see what really happened in Bahrain:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ArgPXLgKM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JEU9BQBPrs

    2 police officers were killed in a ran over car accident:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvaf9hF_lt4

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdjZFWbfBp8&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6LN0VCIUE4&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF5LIDeuGEU&feature=related

    What about killing innocent expats in Bahrain by anti govt protestors? Or HR only defends SOME HUMANS!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIVg-WAAxE&skipcontrinter=1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIVg-WAAxE&skipcontrinter=1

  • A TRUE Bahraini

    Dear Prs. Obama and who Else is in interested and talking ((LISTENING to the voice of season)) about BAHRAIN, ,,,,,These people who are talking in our BEHALF, and call them-self’s “Bahrainis” I know sir that you know sir that they are a “Bunch” of traitors who belong in JAIL OR MORE… LIKE THOSE YOU “USA” prosecuted in 9/11…/// because those people are Iranians More than Iranians themselves, ((they think by doing this they will be the new LEADERS of Bahrain …. And then the rest of peninsular….)), Dear SIR, READ THE LONG & OLD HISTORY BEHIND IT AND LEAVE US DEAL WITH IT….. LIKE YOU DID WITH THOSE WHO HURT YOU IN YOUR YOUNG HISTORY… e.g.; Pearl Harbor &, 9/11 … Thank you SIR