HRW calls on Bahrain to resolve grievances of detained activists

Bahrain should take urgent steps to address the grievances of hundreds of prisoners now on hunger strike and ensure that prisoners are treated humanely, as required under international law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday.

Authorities should also “release anyone serving a prison term solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” the rights group added, calling for Manama to start with “prominent human rights defenders Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Abduljalil al-Singace.”

More than 400 inmates in Jau prison, the country’s largest prison, initiated a hunger strike on 7 August, “to protest abysmal detention conditions and denial of health care”. According to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, as of 30 August, more than 800 were on the hunger strike.

“Many of the inmates on hunger strike in Jau prison are being held after grossly unfair trials and have experienced years of abuse in custody,” said Niku Jafarnia, Bahrain and Yemen researcher at HRW. “Bahraini authorities need to ensure humane detention conditions and immediately release those unjustly imprisoned.”

Many of those on hunger strike are being held unjustly following trials plagued with rights violations. A number of prisoners told the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) on 21 August, that prison authorities continue to subject inmates to inhumane treatment and deny them access to adequate health care.

Al-Khawaja is co-founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights and has Danish citizenship. He was arrested in 2011 for his role in pro-democracy protests in Bahrain and is serving a life sentence handed down following a grossly unfair trial.