In Concurrence with the Increase of Torture Allegations from the Activists and Detainees
08 February 2011
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern for the Bahraini Authorities persistence in its policy in blocking electronic websites, blogs and forums on the Internet, especially those that contain opinions and ideas which criticize its policy or the practices of its security apparatuses and the violations carried out by them, where the Information Affairs Authority lately blocked the translated version of the documentary film ‘Systematic Torture in Bahrain’ which was prepared and uploaded on the well-known YouTube website by the BCHR.
In Concurrence with the Increase of Torture Allegations from the Activists and Detainees
08 February 2011
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern for the Bahraini Authorities persistence in its policy in blocking electronic websites, blogs and forums on the Internet, especially those that contain opinions and ideas which criticize its policy or the practices of its security apparatuses and the violations carried out by them, where the Information Affairs Authority lately blocked the translated version of the documentary film ‘Systematic Torture in Bahrain’ which was prepared and uploaded on the well-known YouTube website by the BCHR.
The browsers inside Bahrain received a block page saying that the documentary film ‘Systematic Torture in Bahrain’ is blocked. This is one of the films that are available on the BCHR channel on YouTube. The BCHR media team had prepared a documentary for the live testimonies of the victims of systematic torture in the Bahraini prisons, who were referred to by the Human Rights Watch organization ‘Torture Redux’[1] report released by the organization last February. The documentary displays seven testimonies of victims who were arrested and tortured in the Criminal Investigation Bureau[2] in December 2007 . The film also includes interviews of some human rights defenders on the issue of torture and Bahrain’s international commitments. The Information Affairs Authority had blocked the film’s page without prior notice and even without justifying the motives behind blocking it. Note that it is blocking the English translated version of the film, and which verifies the Authority’s permanent attempt in concealing the security apparatuses’ practices of torture and maltreatment from the outside world, especially at a time where the torture allegations against hundreds of detainees from the Shiite villages have increased in the last months.
On this occasion, Mr. Nabeel Rajab, president of the BCHR stated, ‘The Bahraini Authorities should have run a transparent and sincere investigation in the torture allegations practiced by the security apparatuses, instead of blocking the documentaries that address those allegations from the outside world, and this policy of obscuring the crimes of torture will contribute in its spread instead of stopping or limiting it, and it will yet show the attempt of the officials in the State to conceal this crime against humanity’.
The BCHR emphasizes that this ongoing organized campaign launched by the Authority in blocking electronic websites contradicts Bahrain’s position as a member in the Human Rights Council, and this is a blatant violation of human rights in the freedom of opinion and expression, and especially Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights endorsed by Bahrain, and which states, ‘Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.’
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights demands the government of Bahrain, represented by the Information Affairs Authority the following:
1. To lift the ban from all the public dialogue, cultural, social, human rights, political and religious websites, and to annul all the procedures that restrict freedom of opinion and expression or that prevent transmitting information;
2. To meet Bahrain’s international commitments as a party in the international covenants and conventions concerned with freedom of opinion and expression, and to amend Press Law No. 47 of 2002 in accordance with the international standards of human rights;
3. Stop the systematic torture in the prisons of Bahrain and to initiate a sincere, transparent and impartial investigation in all the torture allegations in order to bring forth the perpetrators to justice.
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[1]www.hrw.org
[2]Systematic Torture in Bahrain