31 Aug 18 | Bahrain, News and features
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The Bahraini human rights mechanisms have largely failed to properly address concerns raised on behalf of Hassan Mushaima, and his life remains at risk. Because of this, his son, Ali Mushaima, is on a hunger strike outside of Bahrain’s Embassy in London.
Bahraini campaigner Ali Mushaima is returning to his protest site outside the Bahrain embassy in Knightsbridge, London, 24 hours after being hospitalised. Mushaima is on day 31 of a hunger strike in opposition to the treatment of his 70-year-old father Hassan Mushaima, who was locked-up in 2011 as part of the crackdown in Bahrain.
On Thursday Mushaima left the site in an ambulance and was taken to St Thomas’s Hospital in Westminster to receive treatment at around 14:30. He spent the night with his family. Since the beginning of his protest on 1 August, Mushaima has lost 13 Kg having only taken juices and milk. Mushaima’s doctor, who paid him a visit outside the Embassy on 29 August night, said his health conditions were critical, and that his body temperature and sugar level where extremely low. Over the 24 hours before being hospitalised, Mushaima developed chest and abdominal pain. According to his medical report, when the ambulance arrived, his blood sugar had dropped to 3.1. While in hospital, Mushaima did not consume any solid foods.
Mushaima is demanding basic rights for his father, including medical assistance, family visitation rights and access to his books. These have all been denied to him by the regime, which continue to violate Hassan Mushaima’s rights under UN minimum detention standards (known as Mandela Rules).
On 28 August, Mushaima received a call from his father who informed him that he was taken to the hospital for cancer screening. This came after two years in which the Bahraini authorities have denied him access to an oncologist. It appears that all of Hassan’s books, personal notes, writing material and even the Quran have been destroyed after being confiscated without “any legal or logical justification” in October 2017. The authorities appear to have taken this action even though the materials were previously approved by the prison administration. This information was provided to a fellow inmate by a prison officer while Hassan was at the hospital.
Mushaima has received cross-party support for his demands. Support came also from SNP Ian Blackford, who called on the Secretary of State to step in and demand Hassan Mushaima’s release. The co-leaders of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP and Jonathan Bartley, have additionally written to MENA Minister Alistair Burt to demand intervention.
BIRD has written to the Foreign Office to express concerns that it is relying on assurances by the Bahraini government and the UK-trained National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR) in Bahrain. Through its technical assistance programme, since 2012 the UK government has been funding various institutions in Bahrain that are complicit in the denial of adequate medical treatment, including the NIHR.
Ali Mushaima said: “I am returning to the embassy today to continue my protest. My demands are so basic and could all be granted tomorrow. The way the regime has treated my father is appalling. My body is weak, but this protest is my last resource, and if this is what it takes for them to treat my father humanely, then I will not stop until he is given the treatment he needs, family visits and access to his books. These are non-negotiable rights that should be afforded to all prisoners.”
BIRD Director of Advocacy, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei said: “The UK has now become part of the problem, rather than a solution. It’s been a month since Ali started his hunger strike, only to find out that the UK will not call for an end to the cruelty Bahrain is subjecting him and his family to. Instead, the UK has decided to back the lies of a government that is deliberately denying a 70-year-old man his most basic human rights.”
Background:
In response to Mushaima’s hunger strike, Hassan Mushaima received a cancer scan and has been given access to vital medication that was previously unavailable to him, but several issues remain:
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In October 2017, Hassan Mushaima’s books, personal notes, and writing materials were confiscated for no reason. They may have been destroyed.
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Hassan Mushaima continues to be denied his right to family visitation without being subjected to humiliating measures, including being shackled. He last saw his family 18 months ago, in February 2017.
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30 Aug 18 | Bahrain
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Bahraini activist Ali Mushaima was hospitalised after completing one month of his hunger strike outside the Bahrain Embassy in London to protest the inhuman treatment of his 70-year-old father, political prisoner Hassan Mushaima, while serving a life sentence in Bahrain. Mushaima was taken to St Thomas’ Hospital in Westminster by ambulance Thursday afternoon.
Since the beginning of Mushaima’s protest on 1 August, he has lost 13 Kg. Mushaima’s doctor, who paid him a visit outside the Embassy last night, said his health conditions were critical, including low sugar levels which had reached 4.1, low body temperature and low blood pressure. This morning, Ali’s sugar levels reached 3.2.
On 28 August, Mushaima received a call from his father who informed him that he was taken to the hospital unshackled for a PET cancer scan. This came after two years in which the Bahraini authorities have denied him access to an oncologist. Hassan also told Ali that all of his books, personal notes, writing material and even the Quran might have been destroyed after being confiscated without “any legal or logical justification” in October 2017. The authorities appear to have taken this action even though the materials were previously approved by the prison administration. This information was provided to a fellow inmate by a prison officer while Hassan was at the hospital.
Mushaima has publicly spoken about his father’s mistreatment, including contacting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and writing to the Queen, asking Her to use Her strong friendship with the King of Bahrain to help him save his father.
Mushaima’s peaceful protest and his efforts to save his father have now gained cross-party support in the UK. SNP Ian Blackford, called on the Secretary of State to step in and demand Hassan Mushaima’s release. The co-leaders of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas MP and Jonathan Bartley, have additionally written to MENA Minister Alistair Burt to demand intervention.
BIRD has written to the Foreign Office to express concerns that it is relying on assurances by the Bahraini government and the UK-trained National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR) in Bahrain. Through its technical assistance programme, since 2012 the UK government has been funding various institutions in Bahrain that are complicit in the denial of adequate medical treatment, including the NIHR.
Mushaima told BIRD yesterday: “The Bahraini authorities are shameless. It took a month of hunger strike in London before they allowed my father to undertake his cancer screening in Bahrain. The same happened with my other requests which they ultimately acknowledged. I will not stop until my father gets what he is entitled to, and the more authorities abuse him, the more I will expose them.”
Commenting, BIRD Director of Advocacy, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei said: “It is heartbreaking to see someone going through so much suffering to demand respect for the most basic human rights that everyone should be entitled to. Instead of meeting Ali’s simple demands, the Bahraini Government tried to publicly defame him. In so doing, the Gulf Kingdom is normalising a new worrying pattern of abuse against political prisoners, and by backing their lies, the UK has now become part of the problem, rather than a solution.”
Background:
In response to Ali’s hunger strike, Hassan Mushaima received a cancer scan and has been given access to vital medication that was previously unavailable to him, but several issues remain:
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In October 2017, Hassan Mushaima’s books, personal notes, and writing materials were confiscated for no reason. They may have been destroyed.
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Hassan Mushaima continues to be denied his right to family visitation without being subjected to humiliating measures, including being shackled. He last saw his family 18 months ago, in February 2017.
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23 Aug 18 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
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Dear Your Majesty,
My name is Ali Mushaima, and I am writing to ask Your Majesty to help me save the life of my 70-year-old father, Hassan Mushaima, who is now paying a harsh price for demanding human rights and democratic change in Bahrain in 2011.
The deep relations between Buckingham Palace and its Bahraini counterpart have been celebrated on many occasions. Your Majesty has now played host to King Hamad of Bahrain at the Royal Windsor Horse Show for several years, even offering him the privilege of a seat next to Your Majesty during the event. Last year, Your Majesty gifted King Hamad a three-year-old Arabian stallion, Hamdani Ra’ad, thereby publicly declaring the strength of your personal relationship with the Bahraini Royal family. I am sure that your gift is now receiving the best possible care in Bahrain; regrettably, this is not a luxury afforded to political prisoners. My father is not even entitled to enjoy his basic human rights while he is unfairly rotting in infamous Jau Prison.
The total indifference my father’s case has received from both the Bahraini Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has left me with no choice but to follow my father’s firm commitment to peaceful protest. Today, I am sitting outside the Bahraini Embassy in Belgrave Square, only half a mile away from Buckingham Palace, preparing myself to enter the 21st day of my hunger strike to protest his inhumane treatment.
I start each day by walking to Victoria Station to bathe, before returning to the site of my protest which, so far, has done little to improve my father’s prison condition. After 20 days, I am deeply disappointed that my simple requests have fallen on deaf ears. Life imprisonment is not considered cruel enough by those who seek to silence my father, as it appears that the Bahraini government deem the dignity and well-being of a human less worthy than that of a horse.
The Bahraini authorities are now slowly but deliberately killing him by denying him access to vital medical care. My father suffers a number of serious chronic illnesses, including erratic blood pressure and diabetes, and is also a survivor of lymphoma cancer. On a daily basis, he is required to take a variety of medications to stabilise these conditions. Without them, his life is at risk. Since 2016, however, the government has prevented him from seeing an oncologist to determine whether his lymphoma cancer has returned, despite the need for screenings every six months.
These life-threatening measures add to the humiliation my father is constantly subjected to. My father has not seen his family since February 2017, as authorities have punished political prisoners specifically by imposing further degrading restrictions on healthcare, family visits and access to books. Political prisoners are forcibly chained and shackled if they want to see their beloved ones. My father, however, refused to accept these demeaning conditions.
My doctor has expressed serious concerns about my considerable weight loss. Nonetheless, my frustrations have led me to explore more extreme avenues: I will go on a full hunger strike by sacrificing my intake of vital sugars (through juice), despite the risks this entails for my own health, if the Bahraini authorities do not meet my demands by next week.
This week I will be celebrating Eid in Belgrave Square rather than at home, with my beloved wife and 4-months-old daughter. While I will only be denied the comfort of home on this special day, at least I will be celebrating as a free man. My father, instead, is being forced to spend yet another Eid behind bars and separated from his family, who he has not seen for over 18 months, a basic right that seems to have become a privilege.
I would like to ask Your Majesty to use the influence and strong friendship with the King of Bahrain to help me save my father. All I ask for is for him to be treated humanely, including access to adequate medical treatment, books, and family visitation without subjecting him to humiliating measures.
To end, I hope Your Majesty makes it clear to their Bahraini King that the rights and dignity of a human being are non-negotiable, and that the United Kingdom’s strong commitment to these principles goes far beyond historical ties and so will not be compromised.
Your Sincerely,
Ali Mushaima
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20 Aug 18 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”102260″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]As Hassan Mushaima, a septuagenarian prisoner of conscience serving a life sentence in Bahrain, continues to face illegal restrictions on his access to medical care, international NGOs call for full and unrestricted access to medical care in detention for all prisoners of conscience. Our organisations raise deep concerns regarding the inefficacy of Bahrain’s human rights mechanisms in addressing Mushaima’s condition.
Mushaima suffers from a series of chronic medical conditions, including gout, diabetes and erratic blood pressure. He is also a former lymphoma cancer patient. He requires over 15 different types of medication to help with these conditions but has faced restricted access to his medicine. Additionally, his cancer was reportedly in remission as of late 2016, but prison authorities have consistently constrained his access to the regular screenings that he requires to ensure that it has not returned. He also faces restrictive conditions on family visits, with the result that he has not been able to meet with his family since February 2017. While the authorities have recently allowed Mushaima to receive his medication following initial international pressure around his case, they continue to withhold his access to an endocrinologist for his diabetes treatment and cancer screenings. Mushaima and other high profile prisoners of conscience, including Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award winner Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award nominee Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace, have also reported that, since October 2017, prison authorities have confiscated all books, including religious books, papers, and writing materials.
The Bahraini government’s illegal restrictions on healthcare violate international detention standards, and prisoners of conscience have been singled out for mistreatment. Prison authorities force prisoners of conscience, including the elderly Mushaima and Dr. Al-Singace, to be strip-searched, chained, shackled, and marched to medical facilities if they want to attend medical appointments. They must face this treatment when attending external appointments, and when transiting within the prison to the internal medical facilities, which they refuse to do. There is no security justification for this treatment, as Mushaima and al-Singace have never presented any security risks in detention, nor posed any flight risk. This treatment is therefore interpreted by the prisoners, and by our organisations, to be both arbitrary and punitive, with the intention to humiliate and degrade prisoners of conscience. Such treatment contravenes the United Nations (UN) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Mandela Rules.
On 7 August, Bahrain’s National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) released a statement regarding the health conditions of Hassan Mushaima, yet this statement was made without any direct investigation of his condition or consultation with him in prison. The NIHR’s assertions in their statement are misleading and incomplete, and they fail to address core concerns directly raised with the Institution. The statement declares that Mushaima has voluntarily declined medical services to be provided to him and has refused to attend six of his medical appointments in the last six months. What the statement neglects to mention is the degrading treatment Mushaima has endured in order to gain access to medical care.
In choosing to omit any reference to core concerns raised in complaints to the NIHR, including the use of punitive shackling, we in the international human rights community view the Institution’s statement as a clear attempt to obfuscate prison authorities’ degrading treatment of prisoners. We believe this does not represent a good faith effort to effectively address the concerns raised by international human rights groups, but rather appears to be yet another effort to whitewash human rights abuses perpetrated against Mushaima and other prisoners of conscience.
More broadly, Bahrain’s oversight bodies, including the NIHR and the Ministry of Interior Ombudsman, continually contribute to a pervasive culture of impunity in Bahrain through their failure to independently carry out their mandates. While a number of the undersigned organisations continue to present cases to these institutions, we remain seriously concerned over past instances of reprisals and intimidation, as well as false or misleading reporting that serves to conceal human rights abuses by the authorities. Through these actions, these human rights bodies have demonstrated a clear lack of independence and have failed to effectively seek accountability or to act in the best interest of victims.
A number of organisations have expressed these concerns. In July 2018 the UN Human Rights Committee found that Bahrain is failing to meet its treaty obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, specifically noting that the NIHR “lacks sufficient independence to perform its functions” and voicing concerns about “the lack of information on complaints received and investigations carried out in response to these complaints.” Additionally, the UN Committee against Torture in its 2017 State Review of Bahrain, as well as the European Parliament in an urgency resolution earlier this summer, expressed further alarm over the partiality and inefficacy of the NIHR.
The Bahraini human rights mechanisms have largely failed to properly address concerns raised on behalf of Hassan Mushaima, and his life remains at risk. Because of this, his son, Ali Mushaima, is on his 20th day of a hunger strike outside of Bahrain’s Embassy in London. In the early hours of 12 August, foamy dirty liquid was thrown on Ali Mushaima from the embassy’s balcony, in what appears to be an attempt to intimidate him and force him to leave the premises. Undeterred, he continues his protest demanding Bahraini authorities immediately provide Hassan Mushaima with unfettered access to medication and treatment, as well as for an end to restrictions on family visits and the return of confiscated books and reading materials.
We in the international human rights community call on the Bahraini government to establish truly independent and credible human rights mechanisms that are fully empowered to carry out their mandates and appropriately address human rights violations and abuses. We also call on the Bahraini authorities to lift illegal restrictions on prisoners, provide Mushaima and other prisoners of conscience with adequate medical care, and ultimately ensure his release.
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
European Center for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
Global Rights Watch
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Index on Censorship
PEN International
Rafto Foundation for Human Rights[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1534691207631-dfa3422d-2ad0-9″ taxonomies=”716″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
