Bahrain Centers
Known Centers based in Bahrain
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Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
Year established: 2002
Short historical background
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO) registered with the Bahraini Ministry of Labor and Social Services since July 2002. Despite an order by the authorities in November 2004 to close it, the BCHR is still functioning after gaining a wide internal and external support for its struggle to promote human rights in Bahrain. BCHR adopts a mission statement of encouraging and supporting individuals and groups to be proactive in the protection of their own and others' rights; and struggling to promote democracy and human rights in accordance with international norms.
The twenty-six founding members include prominent doctors, lawyers, journalists, and NGO leaders (men and women). Membership in the BHRC general assembly is open to volunteers who serve more than six months at one of its committees. BCHR’s general assembly elects its board of directors for a two-year term. So far, BCHR’s activities are funded from membership fees and small amount donations from individuals.
Objectives
BCHR aims
- To promote freedoms and basic rights (civil, political, economic and social);
- To combat racial discrimination;
- To promote human rights culture;
- To provide support and protection to victims of torture and the vulnerable;
- To conduct research on, and overcome, the difficulties facing the implementation of international human rights laws and standards.
Programs and Activities
- Awareness-raising on human rights issues – BCHR believes in a grassroots approach, and thus its primary agenda is to help the affected people understand what their rights are and how to go about protecting them (rather than asking the government to change the situation). As such, BCHR arranges public seminars, community level discussion forums, and street demonstrations, all with the aim of raising awareness of human rights issues and building solidarity among affected people.
- Advocacy - BCHR engages in advocacy work as part of building a human rights culture in Bahrain. It lobbies the Bahraini authorities, government officials, and stakeholders on various issues in order to press for greater responsibility, recognition of, and respect for human rights.
- Organizing of independent issue-based committees - BCHR believes that the affected people must speak for themselves rather than being spoken for by others. Wherever possible, BCHR initiates and facilitates a number of independent, issue-based committees that affected people can choose to join to pursue their own course of action and speak with their own voice. The committees initiated by the BCHR include: the “Unemployed and Underpaid People Committee”, “Landless People Committee”, and “Victims of Torture Committee.”
- Socio-economic rights promotion - unlike most other human rights organizations in Bahrain and the region, BCHR gives special priority to economic and social rights. BCHR finds these rights as integral components of human rights in general and, more importantly, almost all human rights issues are in some way tied to fundamental social and economic conditions. Some people commit human rights abuses due to socio-economic pressures, while many victims of human rights abuses are unable to seek justice because of huge socio-economic imbalances in society. Therefore, BCHR regards socio-economic rights as a key to the improvement of the general human rights conditions in the country.
Publications
Book
- Two Years of Deaths and Detentions
- Documenting Human Rights Violations During the Pro-Democracy Movement in Bahrain (2013) Reports and news articles such as the following:
- Media coverage of elections marred by self-censorship, political pressure, exclusion of voices and blocking of Internet (2008)
- The release of Arab detainees in Guantanamo: Successful model for the national, regional and international joint efforts (2008)
- Mounting Unrest and Violations in Bahrain (2008)
- Security forces assault journalists covering repression of protest (2007)
- Crackdown on Activists in Bahrain Continues (2007)
- “Al Bander Report”: Demographic engineering in Bahrain and mechanisms of exclusion (2006)
These documents can be accessed online: http://bahrainrights.hopto.org/.
Address
Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)
Manama, Bahrain
ph (973) 39633399; (973) 39400720
fax (973) 17795170
e-mail: info[a]bahrainrights.org
www.bahrainrights.org
Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS)
Year established: 2004
Short historical background
The Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) is a Bahraini human rights organization established in November 2004. The Society was established mainly to consolidate the principles of human rights in the Kingdom. It has remarkable achievements in protecting housemaids and fighting for women’s rights in Bahrain. The Society has sought to support women’s rights activists’ campaign for the introduction of personal status law to protect women in cases of divorce and child custody. In association with the National Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women, the BHRWS launched the Respect Movement, a petition in support of the Personal Status Law. The second part of the Respect Movement’s Agenda is a petition for laws to protect housemaids, who are not currently protected by Bahrain’s Labor Laws.
Objectives
BHRWS aims:
- To play a role in consolidating the principles of human rights in the Kingdom at both thought and practice levels. It endeavors to stop and eradicate all effects of any violation of those rights, and to guarantee non-discrimination between citizens on the basis of race, language, religion, sex or opinion;
- To contribute towards raising the standards of democratic practice in the Kingdom, to form an integrated and balanced model, based on the spread of freedoms, guarantee of political pluralism, respect for the rule of law and to guarantee the right to political, civil, economic, social and cultural development;
- To consolidate the principles of human rights in the Kingdom inspired by the message of all divine faiths, the values of human heritage, the Kingdom's Constitution, the rules and concepts of the National Action Charter and the principles adopted by international human rights instruments;
- To strive for membership of the Kingdom in regional and international conventions and agreements concerning human rights.
Programs and Activities
The Society strives to achieve its objectives through a number of measures including the following:
- Drawing up an integrated plan to enhance and develop the protection of human rights in the Kingdom, and propose means for implementing this plan;
- Expression of opinions when consulted on public or private issues related to the protection and respect of human rights, citizens’ rights, rights of groups and organizations and on how to defend and boost them;
- Submission of proposals and recommendations to the concerned authorities in all that concern the protection, support and improvement of human rights;
- Expression of opinions and drafting of necessary proposals and recommendations on issues presented to it by concerned authorities and parties, in connection with human rights protection and enhancement;
- Receiving complaints concerning human rights, monitoring and studying those complaints and referring appropriate cases to concerned bodies. Then following up the complaints or enlightening the complainants about the procedures to be followed and assisting them with those procedures, settling them and solving the complaints with the concerned bodies;
- Enhancing and guaranteeing consistency between the national legislations, regulations and practices, and the international human rights conventions to which the Kingdom is a state-party, and seeking their effective implementation;
- Participating as a part of Bahraini delegations in gatherings and meetings of local and international organizations concerned with the protection of human rights;
- Information dissemination and publication of human rights and the efforts exerted to fight all forms of discrimination, including sectarian and religious discrimination through the media (using the press, radio, television, etc.) and educational means to increase public awareness.
Publications
• Various reports on Women’s Rights in Bahrain and BHRWS’ Respect Movement (http://bhrws.org/eng/index.php?action=view&page_id=13)
Other Information
The ‘Respect’ Movement is under the umbrella of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society calling on the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain to implement key reforms, including the establishment and enforcement of equal protection measures for domestic workers under the labor laws.
Address
Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society
Al Doseri Business Center, Suite 204
P.O.Box 15055, Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain.
ph (973) 17536222, ext: 204
fax (973) 17531822
email: info[a]bhrws.org
www.bhrws.org