While young convicts in the “Al-Hawd Al-Jaf ” Prison are subjected to grave violations, official human rights institutions, which are supposed to be concerned with monitoring and investigating these violations, turn a blind eye.
Since King Hamad Isa Al Khalifa issued the Restorative Justice for Children and Protection from Abuse Act on February 15, 2021, and its entry into force on August 18 of the same year, we have not seen much positive change, whose effects are supposed to appear in terms of stopping violations and ill-treatment. It has young convicts.
Bahrain Center has monitored the significant escalation of violations against detained children, their exposure to unfair trials, their denial of meeting their lawyers during investigations, in addition to their denial of full and continuous medical treatment due to complaints of lack of hygiene inside the prison and the provision of unsuitable meals for them.
In protest, the six young convicts, Muhammad Ali Adel, Habib Ali Habib, Fadel Muhammad Amin, Al-Sayyid Ahmed Al-Sayed Majeed Mahdi, Ali Mahmoud Muhammad Ali and Hussein Saeed, entered on June 11, 2023 a hunger strike to demand that their files be referred to the Child Courts and that the harsh sentences issued be considered. against them, which did not take into account their childhood, after they demanded several times to benefit from the Correctional Justice Law for Children and protect them from ill-treatment promulgated by Law No. (4) of 2021.
On June 17, 2023, Jassim Muhammad, Hussein Hisham, Hussein Juma, Sadiq Muhammad, Fares Hussein and Khalil Sabah also waged an empty stomach battle in protest against the lack of provision of the necessary medicines and medical care after they contracted a skin disease called “scabies” 3 months ago and placed them in isolation inside prison, which led to the deterioration of their health.
Accordingly, the director of Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Nedal Al-Salman, expresses her deep concern for the safety of the detained children, and affirms that these violations committed against them are in violation of international treaties and covenants, especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Accordingly, Bahrain Center for the Protection of Children from Abuse appeals and calls for:
- Retrial of minor convicts in courts for minors, especially since most of them were arrested when they were under eighteen.
- Ensuring that all the rights, basic requirements and necessary needs of detained children are met in a way that preserves their dignity and safety.