» News

GCHR: Campaign Demanding Release of Prisoners

2021-11-25 - 5:29 am

Bahrain Mirror: The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and over a dozen human rights groups are working together on a public campaign and related advocacy for the release of prisoners of conscience.

The campaign launches at a time when two of Bahrain's most prominent human rights defenders, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, had to resort to hunger strikes in Jaw prison, protesting the authorities' arbitrary actions. 

The "Ten Years On" campaign will highlight the 10th anniversary of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report.

Zaynab Al-Khawaja, GCHR's Journalists Protection Coordinator who participated in helping the BICI team do their research in 2011 said "As activists on the ground who were involved with the work of the BICI, we had hoped that if the Commission reported their findings accurately, and if the horrendous crimes committed came to light in their report that it could be followed by some sort of righting a wrong, and reconciliation for those who had been wronged."

"Instead, ten years later, those same torture survivors whose shocking descriptions are quoted in the report, remain in prison, and their torturers are free," she added.

Arabic Version