April 25th 2011
As political protests become popular throughout the Middle East, many countries are joining the trend in eradicating their government or dictators. We have recently seen huge change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and many other countries as a result of public protest. A country whose population is actively protesting government and is experiencing a lot of conflict is Bahrain. Bahrain followed in the protest trend as thousands took to the streets Febuary 15th 2011.
Bahrain is situated east of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East. It consists of several islands, the main and biggest one being Bahrain. It has a population of 1,214,705.
The government type in Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy. This means that it is run by a King, but there is also a Prime Minister and a cabinet that are both appointed by the monarch. King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa has been the King since march of 1999. The Prime Minister, Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa has been in power since 1971.
The human rights abuses that we have seen are shocking:
On March 16th 2011, the government began sending military troops to stop protests in the Pearl Roundabout. Since then there has been huge conflict in Bahrain and several human rights violations such as torture, mistreatment of prisoners, protesters, mysterious deaths of prisoners in custody and force that is being used to restrain demonstrations. Among the prisoners are nurses and doctors who were detained for providing medical care to injured demonstrators. The government insists that this is showing support for protests and uses this as justification as to why they are being arrested.
This is where Amnesty International has stepped in.
Over 500 people have been arrested over the past month, and four people were reported to have died in custody.
Amnesty International is actively urging countries that are tied to Bahrain to encourage the government to step down and create political reform to put an end to the rising conflict.
"The last month has seen a dramatic deterioration in human rights conditions in Bahrain," - Malcolm Smart, director for the Middle East and North Africa of Amnesty International (Article - Bahrain: International pressure needed now to halt spiralling human rights crisis)
"Bahrainis need to see their government acting decisively and transparently to reverse this downward trend and begin a process of rebuilding trust and confidence in its institutions."
After reading about the human rights abuses in Bahrain, I was shocked. Governments of all kind should not have any right to do such things to their people. Civilians need to have the right of freedom of speech, and the power to change the governing in their country if it is unfair. It is important that countries with alliances to Bahrain speak up now to help the innocent people of Bahrain.
Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain
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