03 Feb 17 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Boris Johnson
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
3 February 2017
Dear Mr Johnson,
In light of recent developments in Bahrain, we write to raise our deep concern over the punitive trials of prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who is being prosecuted in three separate cases for exercising his right to freedom of expression. As Foreign Secretary you have re-committed your Office to counter the shrinking of civil society space and promote the work of human rights defenders. We therefore urge you to give effect to this commitment by calling for the release of Nabeel Rajab.
Index on Censorship Award-winning Nabeel Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Division advisory committee and a founding director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights. He faces up to 17 years in prison on several charges, all related to his free speech.
Nabeel Rajab, who has been in detention, largely in solitary confinement, since his arrest on 13 June 2016, currently faces two separate trials related to his right to free speech. In the first of these, he is charged with “spreading rumours in wartime”, “insulting a neighbouring country” (Saudi Arabia) and “insulting a statutory body”. The first two charges relate to Nabeel Rajab’s tweets published in March 2015 alleging torture in Jaw prison and criticising the killing of civilians in the Yemen conflict by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. The verdict in his trial has been postponed several times suggesting that this is part of a deliberate strategy to harass him. His next hearing on this case is due to take place on 21 February.
On 28 December, during a hearing on the Twitter case, the high criminal court authorised Nabeel Rajab’s release on bail; he was then immediately rearrested for investigation into the charge of “spreading false news in media interviews”. According to the prosecution, Nabeel Rajab’s charge relate to comments given to media outlets in which he stated that foreign journalists and international NGOs cannot enter Bahrain and that the imprisonment of opposition actors was political and illegal. However, multiple international NGOs including Human Rights First, and Reporters Without Borders, as well as academics and journalists, have been denied access since 2012. Amnesty International has also not been granted access to Bahrain since January 2015. Meanwhile, political and unlawful imprisonments are common in Bahrain: Bahrain was the subject of six UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rulings in 2014. Amnesty International has also documented many prisoners of conscience in Bahrain. Nabeel Rajab’s next hearing on this case is scheduled for 7 February.
In addition, Nabeel Rajab has a third charge against him for “spreading false news” after he an Op-Ed written in his name was published in the New York Times in September 2016.
We note the UK Government’s statements in recent years relating to Nabeel Rajab. In 2014 for example, at the UN Human Rights Council the UK together with 46 other states, urged Bahrain “to release all persons imprisoned solely for exercising human rights, including human rights defenders, some of whom have been identified as arbitrarily detained according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.” Also, since your appointment as Foreign Secretary, the Government has, through Parliament and the UN Human Rights Council, expressed concern at the re-arrest of Nabeel Rajab and confirmed that UK officials continue to raise his case with the Government of Bahrain and attend each of his hearings. While such efforts are welcome, it appears that the UK Government has not yet called for his release.
Since your appointment, the human rights situation in Bahrain has further deteriorated. The recent resumption of executions and excessive use of force against protesters, contradict the Bahraini authorities’ rhetoric of progress being made.
We strongly believe that the UK, following your and the Prime Minister’s visit to Bahrain in December, and particularly now that the UK has regained a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, should review its current policy on the human rights situation in Bahrain, publicly condemn regressive measures and call for the release of Nabeel Rajab and others detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression such as Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.
The UK’s significant historical, economic, security and political ties with Bahrain incur a responsibility to acknowledge and criticise negative human rights developments within the country. The UK’s voice is strongly heard in Bahrain, and we urge you to act publicly and promptly in support of Nabeel Rajab’s human rights work and call for his release.
We would like to request a meeting with the FCO to discuss our human rights concerns in Bahrain and Nabeel Rajab’s case and hear the FCO’s views on his case and what the UK government can do to uphold its commitment to reverse the shrinking civil society space in Bahrain.
Yours sincerely,
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Amnesty International UK
ARTICLE 19
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)
English PEN
European Centre For Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
FIDH, under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Index on Censorship
Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)
No Peace Without Justice
PEN International
Rafto Foundation
Reporters Without Borders
The Bahrain Press Association
the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Individuals
Clive Stafford Smith (OBE), director of Reprieve
Professor Damian McCormack[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1486118018001-8efe7b55-8d69-7″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
09 Nov 16 | Events
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Indian human rights defender Aseem Trivedi has been arrested, imprisoned and shut out of mainstream Indian media for his powerful ‘Cartoons Against Corruption’ series. When Aseem was imprisoned in 2012, the Guardian’s celebrated political cartoonist Martin Rowson drew a cartoon condemning his arrest. Today, Aseem is a renowned advocate for detained human rights defenders around the world. He has drawn cartoons in solidarity with activists in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kashmir, and more. Aseem will join Martin in London to discuss, draw and debate freedom of expression and solidarity across borders.
Speakers
Martin Rowson is an award-winning cartoonist whose work has appeared in the Guardian, the Daily Mirror, The Times, New Statesman, the Spectator, the Morning Star, the Scotsman, the Irish Times, Index on Censorship, Time Out and many more. His books include graphic novelisations of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. His collection of cartoons about the last government, The Coalition Book, won the Paddy Power Political Book Award for Political Humour & Satire. Martin is chairman of the British Cartoonists’ Association and in 2001 was appointed Cartoonist Laureate for London by Ken Livingstone.
Martin is on Twitter @MartinRowson.
Aseem Trivedi is an Indian cartoonist and human rights defender. He played a leading role in India’s 2010 anti-corruption movement with his ‘Cartoons Against Corruption’, leading to the government suspending his website, and charging him with sedition, breaching the IT Act, and ‘insulting’ national symbols. After three days in prison, Aseem launched a campaign against the legislation used to target him and other activists, and went on hunger strike demanding its repeal. In 2015, India’s Supreme Court struck down the legislation. Aseem has since created a comic magazine highlighting human rights defenders around the world. He still faces up to three years in prison for ‘insulting’ the government through his art.
Aseem is on Twitter @aseem_trivedi
Presented By: English PEN in partnership with Front Line Defenders, PEN International and Index on Censorship
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When: Friday 18 Nov, 6:30pm
Where: 60 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3GA
Tickets: From £3 from Free Word Centre
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28 Oct 16 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
To: Federica Mogherini
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the
European Commission
European Commission
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Dear HR/VP Federica Mogherini,
The Government of Bahrain continues to arbitrarily detain Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, founding director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and Deputy Secretary General of FIDH, on charges related to his rights to free expression and his work as a human rights defender. We write to ask you to publicly speak out against this clear violation of human rights, and to make clear the European Union’s stance on Rajab’s case and the human rights crackdown in Bahrain.
Rajab’s hearing is scheduled for 31 October when he is expected to be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Rajab has already been held in pre-trial detention for 137 days, mainly in solitary confinement. His health has seriously deteriorated as a consequence of poor detention conditions and lack of sustained medical assistance.
Rajab has been detained since 13 June 2016, based on charges related to his comments on Twitter, documenting allegations of torture in Bahrain’s Jau Prison and criticising the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen. Rajab faces three charges in relation to these tweets, including “defaming a statutory body,” “offending a foreign country,” and “disseminating false news in a time of war,” for which he faces up to 15 years in prison.
On 4 September, the New York Times published Rajab’s “Letter from a Bahraini jail”, addressed to the US authorities. In it, he criticised his country for being one “that punishes its people for thinking, that prevents its citizens from exercising their basic rights.” The following day, on 5 September, Bahrain’s Public Prosecutor charged Rajab with “intentionally broadcasting false news and malicious rumours abroad impairing the prestige of the state,” which carries an additional one-year prison term if he is convicted.
Rajab’s case has sparked international outrage from government officials like the spokesperson of the US Department of State, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and members of the EU Parliament who have all denounced the arrest of Rajab. Whilst we appreciate these efforts, we reiterate our deep concerns over his health and freedom.
We, the undersigned NGOs, believe Rajab is being targeted as a human rights defender by the Bahraini authorities in an attempt to silence all forms of dissent and suppress freedom of expression in the kingdom. All charges against Rajab are in violation of his fundamental human rights – in particular the right to freedom of expression.
In light of the alarming developments in Rajab’s case, who could be sentenced to 15 years in prison on 31 October, we urge you to dispatch an official delegation to the Kingdom of Bahrain, to expressly address EU concerns about the human rights situation in Bahrain, and to support the release of Rajab, and of all other human rights defenders imprisoned in Bahrain.
Rajab’s sentencing is the latest in a series of Bahraini government actions restricting civil society space. The government penalises criticism and human rights work as criminal activities, and Rajab’s prosecution aims to silence the last remaining voice in Bahrain, as well as to instill a culture of fear and impunity. It follows the dissolution of Al-Wefaq, the largest political party in the country, by the Ministry of Justice, the prosecution of over 60 Shia clerics for protesting since June, and the imposition of travel bans against around 20 human rights activists, ahead of UNHRC sessions in June and September this year.
Rajab has suffered for his human rights activism since 2011, including prison sentences between 2012-14 and in 2015. In 2014, the prosecution imposed a travel ban on him after his return from an advocacy trip in Europe, where he visited the UNHRC in Geneva, the European Parliament in Brussels, and other European capitals. This posed a heavy restriction on his human rights work.
Rajab’s comments on Twitter, documenting torture in Bahrain’s Jau Prison and criticising the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen led to his arrest on 2 April 2015. Authorities released him on 13 July 2015 when he received a royal pardon during Ramadan for his previous six-month sentence, but prosecutors did not close the cases and ordered his re-arrest on 13 June 2016.
We urge you not to remain silent in the face of gross violations of basic human rights.
We look forward to your reply.
Signatories,
Aabdulnabi Alekry, Bahrain Human Rights Organisation
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
Bahrain Press Association
Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
CIVICUS
English PEN
European – Bahraini Organisation for Human rights
European Center for Democracy and Human Rights
Freedom House
Front Line Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights
IFEX
Index on Censorship
International Media Support
International Service for Human Rights
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
No Peace Without Justice
RAFTO
REDRESS
Salam for Democracy and Human Rights
Vivarta
