Gulf Daily News – Vol XXVIII, NO. 235 – Thursday 10 November 2005
By KANWAL HAMEED
A HUMAN rights coalition is planning protests around the Forum for the Future, to put a variety of issues in the global spotlight. They will focus on unemployment, people without citizenship, housing problems, protection of public lands and abuse victims.
The Popular Committee Coalition is set to stage protests and alternative meetings during the two-day forum, which begins tomorrow at the Gulf Hotel.
The coalition, spearheaded by the dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, includes the Unemployed Committee, Committee for People Deprived of Citizenship, Committee in Support of Former Exiled Citizens, Committee of Reinstatement of Coasts, Islands and Public Lands, National Committee for Martyrs and Victims of Torture and Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.
Gulf Daily News – Vol XXVIII, NO. 235 – Thursday 10 November 2005
By KANWAL HAMEED
A HUMAN rights coalition is planning protests around the Forum for the Future, to put a variety of issues in the global spotlight. They will focus on unemployment, people without citizenship, housing problems, protection of public lands and abuse victims.
The Popular Committee Coalition is set to stage protests and alternative meetings during the two-day forum, which begins tomorrow at the Gulf Hotel.
The coalition, spearheaded by the dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, includes the Unemployed Committee, Committee for People Deprived of Citizenship, Committee in Support of Former Exiled Citizens, Committee of Reinstatement of Coasts, Islands and Public Lands, National Committee for Martyrs and Victims of Torture and Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.
A protest will be held today at the Ras Al Ruman Mosque at 3pm and a sit-in on Saturday opposite the Prime Minister’s Court on the King Faisal Corniche at 7pm.
An open discussion on political reforms in the region will be held at 10am today at Al Oruba Club, Juffair.
The aim is to highlight a string of issues being raised by the coalition.Official figures from the Labour Ministry show that more than 20,000 Bahrainis are currently unemployed, Unemployed Committee representative Nader Salatna told a Press conference at the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions, Adliya.
Mr Salatna said his group alone had registered 17,000 unemployed people, indicating that the real nationwide figure could be much higher.
He said so-called ‘renegade workers’, criticised by authorities and employers to quitting jobs, did so because salaries were so low.
Committee for People Deprived of Citizenship representative Sonya Taher said more than 600 Arabs and non-Arabs were being deprived of citizenship, even though some have lived in Bahrain for more than 50 years.
Ms Taher said most of the ‘stateless’ citizens were originally from Iran, but also included people from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan and India.
She said they were being deprived of government housing, education and other citizenship rights.
Ms Taher said in some cases reviewed by the committee, all members of a family apart from one had been given Bahraini citizenship, without any justification given by authorities. She recommends that the government take “expedient” measures while the case is still “simple” and warned that numbers would grow over time, further complicating the problem.
Committee in Support of Former Exiled Citizens representative Yousif Al Derazi said steps were required by the government to help returned self-exiled or deported citizens to “reinstate” their lives.
Measures
Mr Al Derazi, who returned to Bahrain in 2001 after 21 years in exile, said he was among 500 citizens who had returned to the country who were without either jobs, government housing or other aid.
Committee of Reinstatement of Coasts, Islands and Public Lands representative Mohammed Jaffar called on the Bahrain government to remove an allegedly illegal 700 metre wall in Sanad, which he said cut off a road from a residential area leading to the beach.
Although residents in Northern Sanad have succeeded in having the road reopened, Mr Jaffar said they are asking for the wall to be demolished.
He called for the implementation of legal measures to prevent the ownership of coasts by private owners and damage to coastlines.
National Committee for Martyrs and Victims of Torture representative Raouf Al Shayeb said it had filed 7,000 court cases on behalf of alleged victims of abuse in custody, all of which had been rejected because of Decree 56, which grants immunity to police accused of abuses before 2001.