Bahrain Human Rights

Human Rights Concerns

Major political reforms begun in 2000 have slowed dramatically, and in some cases been reversed. Arrests of government critics have resumed. The detention of human rights defender 'Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja and the closure of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) in September 2004 was a major blow to the reform process. Immunity has been granted to officials for acts of torture committed prior to February 2001. Crackdowns on freedom of expression occur with increasing frequency.

The King has stated his commitment to ending all discrimination against women, but violence against women continues, and there remains strong resistance to replacing the traditional family or religious courts with civil courts, as women's rights advocates have urged. Discrimination against Shiites remains a problem, and real poverty is on the rise in some Shiite communities. Economic disparities between Sunni and Shiite Bahrainis are growing. Many Bahrainis, mostly Shiites, remain classified as "bidoon", that is, without citizenship. Foreign workers remain vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, particularly female domestic workers, who have virtually no protection at all.

One Bahraini remains detained without charge by the US at Guantanamo Bay. On December 11, 2006, two men and a woman, all foreign nationals, became the first people executed in Bahrain since 1996.

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