Bahrain Mirror: Nine Human Rights Organizations expressed their concerns on Friday (November 20, 2015), regarding the Bahraini government's ongoing violations of hundreds of children's rights and breach of the UN convention on the Rights of the Child.

On the Universal Children's Day, the organizations said that the Bahraini authorities has, since 2011 until today, violated the children's right to safety and killed more than 10 children under age of 18. The authorities also violated the children's right to freedom by arresting more than 1,500 children, some of whom are still detained and prosecuted over charges under Terrorism Act.

The Bahraini authorities also deprived dozens of children from their right to a nationality, either because their fathers were arrested over political issues or their fathers' citizenships were arbitrarily revoked. Hundreds of children were denied their right to education, especially that the schools that the authorities claim to be established in juvenile detention centers are a group of unspecialized classes and can't be relied on for education.

The president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, considered that violating the rights of these children is but a policy of retaliation against minors whose their only fault is that they live in a country that does not recognize the rights of children, particularly if he lives in an area that witnesses ongoing protests or comes from a family known for its political activism.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Bahrain Human Rights Observatory, Bahrain Human Rights Society, Bahrain Youth Society For Human Rights, SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, the European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights, Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, Canadian Justice Human Rights Organization and LuaLua Center for HUMAN Rights signed a statement demanding the unconditional release of all children.

The statement also called for putting an end to the restriction of the freedoms of children and take retaliatory actions against them due to the political situation in the country. It also urged guaranteeing the rights of children and amend the Bahraini law to raise the range of children's age from 15 to 18 years.

Arabic Issue