Amnesty International Report 2017/18

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

automatic rifles, injuring hundreds, including 

Mustapha Hamdan, who later died of his 

wounds. In February, hundreds of protesters 

again took to the streets in several villages 

when the authorities refused to allow the 

funeral of three men who were killed by 

coastguard forces after escaping from Jaw 

prison a month earlier.

The authorities continued to restrict access 

to Duraz village until May, where a peaceful 

daily sit-in continued outside the home of 

Sheikh Isa Qassem, the spiritual leader of al-

Wefaq. On 23 May, security forces entered 

Duraz with hundreds of armoured vehicles, 

beating protesters, firing tear gas from 

armoured vehicles or helicopters and firing 

birdshot. Four men and a 17-year-old child 

were killed.

In February, human rights defender Nader 

Abdulemam was arrested to serve a six-

month sentence for participating in an “illegal 

gathering” and having called on people on 

Twitter to join a protest in Manama in January 

2013. He was held as a prisoner of 

conscience until his release in June.

In May, the Court of Appeal reduced Dr 

Taha Derazi’s six-month prison sentence to 

three months for taking part in an “illegal 

gathering” in Duraz in July 2016. He was 

held as a prisoner of conscience until his 

release in August.

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

The authorities maintained administrative 

travel bans that prevented scores of human 

rights defenders and other critics from 

travelling abroad, including to attend 

meetings of the UN Human Rights Council. 

In April, days ahead of the UN UPR of 

Bahrain, 32 activists were summoned by the 

Public Prosecution. The majority were 

charged with “illegal gathering” and banned 

from travelling. Most bans were lifted in July, 

after the UPR had been conducted. Similar 

tactics were used in September ahead of the 

UN Human Rights Council session in which 

the outcome of the UPR on Bahrain was 

adopted.

DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY

Authorities obtained court orders to strip at 

least 150 people of their Bahraini nationality. 

The majority were effectively rendered 

stateless as they had no other nationality. No 

forced expulsions took place.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

There continued to be reports of torture and 

other ill-treatment in custody, in particular of 

those interrogated about terrorism-related 

offences. In May alone, eight human rights 

defenders and political activists in NSA 

custody were reportedly tortured or otherwise 

ill-treated. Unfair trials continued and courts 

relied on allegedly coerced “confessions” to 

convict defendants on terrorism-related 

charges.

Reports of ill-treatment in Dry Dock prison 

and Jaw prison continued, including the use 

of prolonged solitary confinement and lack of 

adequate medical care. After the escape of 

10 prisoners from Jaw prison in January, new 

arbitrary regulations were introduced, 

including that prisoners must remain locked 

in their cells for most of the day. Prisoners’ 

legs and ankles were shackled whenever they 

left their cells, including to go to the medical 

clinic. Eleven opposition activists who 

remained in prison, including Abdulhadi al-

Khawaja, refused to attend medical 

appointments to protest the mandatory prison 

uniform, shackles and full body strip search 

required to attend the appointment. In 

March, the prison administration also 

reduced the length of family visits from one 

hour to 30 minutes and separated prisoners 

from visitors by a glass barrier.

Student Ali Mohamed Hakeem al-Arab 

reported that he was tortured throughout 26 

days of interrogation in February and March, 

including by having his toenails pulled out, 

being subjected to electric shocks and 

beatings, and being forced to sign a 

“confession”. In May, Ebtisam al-Saegh and 

seven other peaceful critics reported that 

they were tortured and otherwise ill-treated in 

NSA custody. (See above, Freedom of 

expression.)

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IMPUNITY

A climate of impunity persisted. The 

authorities continued to fail to hold senior 

officials accountable for torture and other 

human rights violations committed during 

and since the 2011 protests. No investigation 

or prosecution was known to have taken 

place into the deaths of six people, including 

one child, killed by security forces in Duraz 

between January and May 2017.

WORKERS’ RIGHTS – MIGRANT 

WORKERS 

Migrant workers continued to face 

exploitation. In March and June, migrant 

workers participated in marches to peacefully 

protest against unpaid salaries.

DEATH PENALTY

Bahrain resumed executions after a hiatus of 

nearly seven years, executing three Bahrainis 

in January. The courts continued to hand 

down death sentences for offences including 

murder and terrorism-related charges.

BANGLADESH

People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Head of state: Abdul Hamid

Head of government: Sheikh Hasina

Bangladesh received more than 655,000 

Rohingya refugees who were forced out of 

Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Members of the 

opposition Jamaat-e-Islami were arbitrarily 

arrested. Human rights defenders were 

harassed and intimidated. The rights to 

freedom of peaceful assembly and 

association remained restricted. Enforced 

disappearances persisted. The strategy to 

combat violence by armed groups continued 

to be marked by human rights violations. 

LGBTI people continued to be harassed and 

arrested. Security forces in the Chittagong 

Hill Tracts failed to protect Indigenous 

people from violence. On a positive note, a 

decade of steady economic growth helped 

to reduce extreme poverty.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Attacks against journalists continued, with a 

number of physical assaults on journalists 

reported, including the killing of Abdul Hakim 

Shimul.

The government continued to use 

repressive laws to unduly restrict the right to 

freedom of expression, and to target and 

harass journalists and human rights 

defenders. Key punitive provisions of the 

Information and Communications Technology 

(ICT) Act remained intact, despite repeated 

calls by human rights mechanisms to repeal 

its abusive clauses. The government 

reiterated its intention to introduce the Digital 

Security Act, which would restrict further the 

right to freedom of expression online.

Investigations into killings during 2015 and 

2016, which were claimed by the armed 

group Ansar al-Islam and targeted secular 

activists, were still ongoing. The group was 

banned in March 2017 but ongoing delays in 

criminal prosecutions continued to have a 

chilling impact on civil society.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

LGBTI activists continued to be routinely 

harassed and subject to arbitrary detention 

by state and non-state actors. The killings of 

activists in 2016 by Ansar al-Islam intensified 

existing fears of the LGBTI community; many 

activists remained in hiding. In May, 28 men 

believed to have been targeted for their 

perceived sexual orientation were arrested in 

Keraniganj, a neighbourhood of the capital, 

Dhaka, and charged with violating the 

Narcotics Control Act 1990. The arrests were 

made at a regular gathering known to be 

frequented by gay men.

No one was brought to justice for the 2016 

killing of LGBTI activists Xulhaz Mannan, 

Mahbub Rabbi Tanoy, Avijit Roy and Niladry 

Niloy, although at least one arrest was made 

in 2017.

FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

The right to freedom of peaceful 

assembly continued to be severely restricted. 

Political opponents were denied the right to 

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