Since August 2010, Bahraini authorities have been arresting political activists, human rights defenders, and members of the Shiite communities. Bahraini children have not been spared from the crackdowns and have suffered from widespread waves of arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, enforced disappearances, and physical, psychological and sexual torture. Many believed that the attacks on children were perpetrated by members of the national security forces, and also by foreign mercenaries who were hired as members of the Bahraini Special Forces. The Special Forces attack people, including children, randomly. Many people have also been injured due to excessive use of force, and the use of rubber bullets and tear gas. A group of United Nations (UN) independent experts condemned in a March 2011 official UN news release the continuing brutal suppression of the protests.1
During a crackdown that started in August 2010 at least seventy- six children were arrested, constituting 21% of the more than three hundred fifty detainees in Bahrain at that time. This rate far exceeded the proportion of child detainees to the total number of detainees or prisoners in countries suffering from disturbances such as in Occupied Palestine (3.7% of total prisoners)2 and Iraq (3% of the total detainees).3 This reflects the severity of the latest security crackdown and arbitrary arrests against the most vulnerable group of people in society. While some of these children have been released in February 2011, many are still in detention charged with crimes mostly related to participation in protests, demonstrations and burning of tires. More children have been arrested recently (February 2011) as part of ongoing crackdown on protesters. Among the youngest of the detained children was Ali Ahmed Abbas (12 years old) who disappeared for several days before his family found out that he was in police custody.
During the August 2010 crackdown, children as young as ten years old were arrested. Ten-year-old Jihad Aqeel AlSari was arrested on 19 November 2010, the eve of the Universal Children's Day, after refusing for fear of his life to heed a call to go to a police station. His family believed that his arrest was meant to put pressure on his father, Mr. Aqeel AlSari, a Shiite cleric who was detained for alleged link to what was known as the "terrorism network," and who spoke before the Court on 28 October 2010 on how he was tortured in detention. Jihad was then released but confined to his place of residence.
Parents are usually not officially informed of the reason for the arrest of their children, since arrests are often denied for several days after disappearance. They are also denied of the right to visit their detained children, and to check their children's safety.4
Pleas by parents for the release and continuation of education of the detained children while their cases were being tried in courts (with guarantees to bring them to court hearings) were rejected. In addition, requests by lawyers to release these children under required guarantees because of their young age, especially for those who have already spent more than two months in detention, were also rejected.
Children are being held in criminal detention centers along with adult detainees who are charged with criminal offenses such as drug trafficking. This violates the recommendation of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated in the report on its 2001 visit to Bahrain. The relevant recommendation states:5
The Working Group recommends the [Bahraini] Government to extend the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court to cover minors aged between 15 and 18, and amend the existing law to require that minors in this category are assisted by counsel, to allow for rehabilitative measures appropriate to their age and needs, and to have them held separately from adults in prisons.
Prolonged detention caused serious psychological trauma on some of the children. Some of them have stopped eating. Some children who suffered serious injuries due to attacks by the police have been transferred from hospitals to the detention centers before full recovery.
Children are victims of arbitrary attacks on villages and of the collective punishment policy. They are also being intimidated in order to dissuade them from participating in protest actions.
Some children are also victims of attacks by riot police against people who protest in their villages.
Recently, on 30 March 2011, fifteen-year-old Sayed-Ahmad Sa'eed Shams from Saar village was shot in the face by security forces and died on the way to the American Mission Hospital in the village. Reports show that he was playing outside his house with friends when the riot police came. He panicked and started to run but the police fired on him. There was no protest taking place in the village at that time.6
In a different case, in October 2010, two nine-year-olds, and one six-year-old, were injured by rubber bullets fired at them by members of the riot police during a protest in their village. In another case, a thirteen-year- old child suffered cuts from shattered glass caused by rubber bullets fired by riot police and by the impact of bomb explosion.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights received a number of complaints regarding kidnapping of children from the streets by groups of armed militia wearing civilian clothes who roam Shiite villages where protests have been held. Most kidnapped children were subjected to enforced disappearance for periods ranging from several hours to several days. They were taken to secret centers in blindfold where they were tortured, severely beaten, stripped and photographed naked, and sexually harassed. They were later released wearing only their underwear in places far from their villages.
Most families of the affected children have filed complaints with the police and requested investigation. But despite the number of complaints filed, there has been no concrete action to hold the perpetrators accountable.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that this targeting of children through kidnapping and torture is aimed at scaring parents and the village residents. This is also aimed at forcing activists in Shiite villages to stop their demonstrations and protests. These protests have been going on for several years now due to the systematic marginalization and isolation carried out by the Bahraini authorities at all levels (political, social, and cultural) including deprivation of educational and housing services to Shiite villagers.
Bahraini law prohibits children below twenty years of age from participating in any political exercise (such as elections) due to their assumed inability to make sound decision. And yet, children of at least fifteen years of age can be liable to full criminal responsibility just like adults. Criminal cases are filed against children and tried in criminal, rather than juvenile, courts. Some have been sentenced to life imprisonment. This situation violates the international human rights standards.
There is a clear disregard of the rights, security and welfare of children who have been physically harmed, detained and sentenced harshly by the criminal courts in the context of the government campaign to stamp protest actions by the people.
In view of the serious situation affecting Bahraini children, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights recommends that the Bahraini government undertake the following:
1. Immediate release of all detainees under eighteen years old. Criminal charges against them should be pursued in accordance with international human rights standards on fair trial, considering their status as children
2. Prompt, impartial and effective investigation of all (Continued on page 15) cases of abduction, enforced disappearance and torture, especially those involving children and minors as victims, to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice
3. Provide full care for the victims of these violations, especially the children and minors, and give them adequate compensation and necessary support for rehabilitation
4. In case persons under eighteen years old have to be detained such detention must not contravene the international human rights standards and must be in places established for juvenile detention and under the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs, and not under the Ministry of the Interior or any other security-related body
5. Immediate stop to repeated attacks on Bahraini villages, especially those affecting children and minors
6. Implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 2002 recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the reform of the criminal justice system7
7. Address political and social problems through dialogue based on an understanding of the root causes of these problems, and in accordance with laws and procedures that comply with international human rights standards
8. Take all necessary measures to ensure that children and minors at risk of detention or trial are not deprived of their right to education, and guaranteed the completion of their education to ensure a decent future.
For further information, please contact: Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Manama, Bahrain; ph (973) 39633399; (973) 39400720; fax (973) 17795170; e-mail: info@bahrainrights.org; www.bahrainrights.org
1. See "Broken promises in Bahrain - UN experts question Government's human rights commitments," News and Events, www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=10881&LangID=E
2. See report on study of the detainees and prisoners in Israeli jails (Arabic language), in www.palissue.com/vb/palestine14/issue20233.
3. See World Association of Arab Translators and Linguists, Urgent Appeal for releasing the prisoners detained in Iraq prisons, 11 March 2010, www.brussellstribunal.org/Prisoners110310.htm.
4. "Mothers of detainees plead with officials to disclose place of their sons' detention," Alwasat News, in Arabic language, www.alwasatnews.com/2939/ news/read/475969/1.html.
5. Report of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Visit to Bahrain, E/CN.4/2002/77/Add.2, 5 March 2002, page 2.
6. "Death of a young man from Saar, shot in the face yesterday afternoon", Alwasat News, in Arabic language, www.alwasatnews.com/3128/news/read/535099/1.html.
7. Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Bahrain, CRC/C/15/Add. 175 (2002), available at www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/ 0/1888017232928146c1256b59004e9cba?Opendocument.