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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