Bahrain Mirror: The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) issued its annual report, entitled " Chased without Protection: Silence, or Prison, Death, and Deportation" in which it monitored the human rights situation in Bahrain during 2017.

The report said that Bahrain's record on the human rights level and increase of violations got worse, especially with the continuation of security iron fist against the opposition, chasing human rights activists, political activists, media people and photographers over practicing activities directly related to their work, and freedom of expression. The report also tackled the issue of chasing protestors and using the law to punish them.

The report included statistics represented in graphs comparing the number of arbitrary arrested throughout the past 7 years and showing the increase in number of arrests in 2017, despite all the local and international condemnation and appeals to stop arbitrary arrests over political backgrounds in Bahrain.

It also included number of human rights violations in Bahrain; violation of religious freedoms, arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearance, ongoing ban on assembly, targeting institutions of civil society as well as unfair prosecution.

According to the report, 2165 citizens were reported to have been abused in 2017.

In its report, the BFHR pointed to the increase in the number of victims of violations in the first months of 2017, up until May, during which the security authorities launched a wide campaign against political activity and protests in Bahrain. The campaign included the security operation in Diraz area, west of Manama, which aimed at ending the sit-in held in front of the home of the leader of the Shiite community in Bahrain, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim. The number of victims subjected to violations in May reached 481.

The report concluded that in 2017, 1694 cases of arbitrary arrest were recorded, 644 of which were arrested as a result of raids; 1049 illegal raids and 107 injuries resulting from excessive use of force by the security forces were monitored; 1414 of which were repressed; and other violations were committed such as enforced disappearance, torture and arbitrary sentences issued in cases related to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Arabic Version