Bahrain Centre for Human Rights
 |
|
| Motto | Defending and promoting human rights in Bahrain |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 2002 by a group of activists in Bahrain |
| Type |
Non-profit NGO |
| Location |
|
| Services | Protecting human rights |
| Fields | Media attention, non-violence, research, lobbying |
|
Key people
|
Nabeel Rajab (President) Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (former president) Maryam Alkhawaja (Head of the Foreign Relations Office) |
| Website | www.bahrainrights.org |
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is a Bahraini non-profit non-governmental organisation which works to promote human rights in Bahrain, which was founded by a number of Bahraini activists in June 2002. The centre was given a dissolution order after its former president Abdulhadi Al Khawaja was arrested in September 2004 a day after criticizing the country's Prime Minister, Khalifah ibn Sulman Al Khalifah at a seminar in which he blamed the Prime Minister for the failure of widespread economic development for all citizens. The BCHR is still banned by the government, but has remained very active.
In 2013 the organisation was awarded the Rafto Prize for its work.
In June 2002 the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was founded by Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, Nabeel Rajab, Abdulaziz Abul, Ramla Jawad, Jawad Al-Asfoor, Jenan Al-Sheikh and others.
On 25 September 2004 the BCHR was closed down and Alkhawaja was arrested a day after publicly criticizing the Prime Minister and the Bahraini regime for corruption and human rights abuses. In November 2005 a court sentenced AlKhawaja to one year in prison on charges which included "inciting hatred" and accusing authorities of corruption, under provisions prescribed by the 1976 Penal Code.
On the morning of 21 November, the court sentenced Alkhawaja to one year in prison, but later in the day it was announced that he had been given a Royal Pardon by the King and was released.
Although its license was revoked, the BCHR is still functioning after gaining wide internal and external support for its struggle to promote human rights in Bahrain. According to Human Rights Watch, as of 2011 "The government continues to deny legal status to the BCHR, which it ordered dissolved in 2004 after the group's then-president criticized the prime minister for corruption and human rights violations."
BCHR describes its vision as "a prosperous democratic country free of discrimination and other violations of human rights" and says its mission is to "encourage and support individuals and groups to be proactive in the protection of their own and others' rights; and to struggle to promote democracy and human rights in accordance with international norms" based on four objectives:
...
Wikipedia