The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the ongoing crackdown on human rights defenders and freedom of expression in Bahrain, which the international community has witnessed during recent months. Additional prison sentences and reprisals in the form of endless travel bans were imposed on human rights defenders in addition to more restrictions on online activism.

According to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) the government of Bahrain introduced further restrictions on the right to freedom of expression over the Internet last week, centralising website-blocking powers under Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory authority (TRA). On 5 August 2016, the head of the TRA Board of Directors, Mohammed Ahmed Al-Amer, issued Decision 12/2016 regarding regulations on safety over the Internet. The decision states that all telecommunication companies in Bahrain must purchase and use a unified technical system for blocking websites. The control over this system will be centralised and entirely managed by the TRA. GCHR notes that the BCHR website has been blocked since 2006 and the authorities have also blocked BCHR’s alternative website.

On 04 August 2016, as reported by his wife, Sumaya Rajab, authorities in Bahrain postponed an urgent hospital appointments for prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who is a GCHR Founding Director and President of BCHR, until the first week of September. He needs two operations, one for the removal of gallstones and the other to treat an ulcer on his back, and the appointments were arranged with medical specialists at the Bahrain Defense Force Hospital.

“This is nothing short of an attempt to break Nabeel down psychologically and physically,” said GCHR Co-Director Khalid Ibrahim. “Bahrain must release Nabeel immediately and allow him to receive proper medical care.”

In another case, Maytham Al-Salman, human rights defender and religious freedoms officer at the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory (BHRO), has been summoned to appear on 14 August 2016 for interrogation before the security authorities in relation to his peaceful and legitimate human rights activities, including calling for Rajab to be released in a recent video.

GCHR believes reprisals against human rights defenders working with the international mechanisms including the UN system, the introduction of further restrictions on the right to freedom of expression over the Internet and the blocking of human rights organisations’ websites, the ill-treatment and imprisonment of Nabeel Rajab, and the summons of Maitham Al-Salman are part of a systematic trend adopted by the government of Bahrain aimed at depriving people, including human rights defenders, of their basic rights.

GCHR urges the various UN human rights mechanisms, the EU, all governments that have influence in Bahrain, and in particular the US and UK, to strongly urge Bahrain to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally stop all forms of reprisals against human rights defenders and other activists who are working with international mechanisms including the UN system;

2. Stop the ongoing attacks on freedom of expression on the Internet and refrain from targeting online activists;

3. Ensure that Maitham Al-Salman is capable of doing his peaceful and legitimate human rights work without any kind of harassment or restriction; and

4. Ensure that journalists, media workers and all human rights defenders in Bahrain are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nation Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to Article 6 (b and c): “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: (b) As provided for in human rights and other applicable international instruments, freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms; (c) To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters”, and to Article 12 (1 and 2): “(1) Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. (2) The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.