on: December 25, 2007

Urgent action
Bahrain
The Right To Peaceful Assembly Gone With The Wind

the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA)
observes with concern the latest events in Bahrain kingdom in the aftermath of the demonstrations held in support of torture victims on December 17th 2007 and the resulting clashes between people and security forces in different regions in Bahrain, the arrest campaign, the excessive use of force for separating demonstrators and the storming of the houses of several civil society activists whether or not they participated in the demonstrations. Among the activists arrested at the morning of Friday 21st December 2007 were Haitham Al-Tamar, member of the committee for unemployed and low-income people, Naji Ali Feteal and Nader Ahmad Al-Salatena, members of the Bahraini organization for human rights, Abd-Allah Mohsin, Mohammad Al-Sankees and Shaker Mohammad Al-Hemli. In the house break-in campaign, computers, CDs and important papers were seized. According to some local estimates, 39 activists were arrested up to the present with the pretense of searching for a governmental rifle that was lost in the demonstrations as claimed by the ministry of the interior.

The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA)

confirms that these storming campaigns and the following arrests made by the Bahraini security forces are completely incompatible with all international conventions that guarantee the right to peaceful assembly as the collective vehicle through which citizens express their opinions and legitimate demands. APHRA emphasizes that this security-based approach by the Bahraini government gets Bahrain back to the pre-reform era, gives priority to security method over democratic one and abolishes all promises given by the monarch at the turn of the millennium. These acts by the Bahraini security forces also violate articles 9 and 21 of the international covenant on civil and political rights that prohibit arbitrary arrests and guarantee the right to peaceful assembly.

APHRA asks the Bahraini authorities to immediately stop the revenge campaign and the blockade put against the people of Sanabis and Al-Diya and other regions of Bahrain and to immediately release the arrested people, particularly prisons of conscience who were arrested prior to the December 17th demonstrations. APHRA also calls for initiating an immediate inquiry for examining the claims about the excessive use of power by security forces in separating demonstrators resulting in the death of Ali Jasim in December 17th demonstrations and imposing penalties on the convicted persons.

Meanwhile, APHRA appeals to all Arab and international civil society organizations to show solidarity with the human rights activists who were arrested at the morning of Friday 21st December 2007 and to put pressure on the Bahraini authorities to put an end to all the forms of suppression to which human rights activists in Bahrain are exposed.

Sandeep Singh Grewal

Rights activists rally behind head of unregistered society

Human rights activists in the region have called on the Bahraini authorities to drop charges against activist Mohammed Al Maskati.
He is been charged with heading the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights which is not registered. “My mother received the court notice asking me to be present during hearing on November 27. I was charged for running a non-registered association,” Al Maskati told the Tribune.

He claimed that the society had submitted all the required documents for approval from the Ministry of Social Development.
Al Maskati alleged that the ministry did not explain why the society would not be registered.

The Tribune tried to contact ministry officials but they were not available. The case has been postponed to January 21.
“I have consulted my lawyers. Bahrain has signed the International Convention for Civil and Political Rights. The charges against me are in violation of this international convention,” Al Maskati said.

Cairo-based non-governmental organisation, the Arab Programme for Human Rights Activists, which monitors human rights violations in the region, has launched a petition calling for dropping charges against Al Maskati.

In Bahrain, the now dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and the Haq Movement have taken up the case. “The United Nations will review Bahrain’s record in the field of human rights in April 2008. But such acts against Al Maskati will give a bad image to the country,” BCHR vice president Nabeel Rajab said.

Meanwhile, the Committee of Underpaid and Unemployed told the Tribune that their rally slated for today had been cancelled as it was not permitted by the authorities. The rally was to start from the Chamber of Deputies to Gudaibiya.

Cairo on: December 4, 2007

Urgent Action

Bahrain

Commencing The Trial Of The Human Rights Activist Mohammad Al-Maskati

Authorities in the Arab region still have the legal repertoire of which daily take out laws to chase human rights activists. These legal tools are always kept in reserve for muzzling human rights activists, violating their basic rights and freedoms and prohibiting their peaceful human rights activities in which they disclose the black human rights record in all Arab countries from the Atlantic ocean to the Arab gulf. In this framework, the Bahraini authorities presented the human rights activist Mohammad Al-Maskati, head of the Bahraini youth organization for human rights (under establishment) for trial in front of the fourth elementary criminal court on Tuesday 27th of November 2007 in charge of “running an NGO before having its registration statement in accordance with the Bahraini punishment and NGOs laws.

The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA) uneasily observes the developments of this lawsuit against one of the Arab human rights activists in Bahrain. With full recognition of the exclusiveness of the Arab gulf states in the human rights record, their legislative framework, their strong horror and rejection of all peaceful human rights activities and the countless violations of human rights they make, APHRA is insisting on showing its full solidarity with human rights activists in the Arab gulf states. The people “without nationality” is an example of these violations made against big group of people in several Arab gulf states, including Bahrain. In spite of this self-locked nature of these states regarding human rights activities and citizens’ participation in public affairs, APHRA will not cease supporting human rights activists in Bahrain and all Arab gulf states.

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