AhlulBayt News Agency - The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) issued its annual report on Sunday (April 3, 2016), documenting all the human rights violations committed by the authorities in Bahrain during 2015.
The 41-page report, entitled "Human Rights Violations from Practice to Institutionalization", is backed by visuals, charts and figures, summarizing the events that took place over the course of the year and the violations practiced by the authorities mainly against peaceful pro-democracy dissenters.
BCHR said that it "documented 1883 arrest cases in 2015 linked to the popular movement calling for political reform," adding that 237 of the cases involve minors under 18 years of age, and 34 women."
"About 44.6% of the total arrests took place during illegal house raids and 26.9% on the streets after cracking down on rallies and protests," the report added.
The report further states that "more than 441 cases of forced disappearance, ranging from a few days to a month, occurred between November 2014 and June 2015."
As for torture and abuse, the report stressed that "it's the first time the center records widespread systematic torture practiced against those convicted and serving their sentences inside the central prison." The report particularly addressed "the events that erupted in Jaw Central Prison in March 2015, which left hundreds injured, with injuries ranging between minor, moderate and severe."
The BCHR report also noted that "25 social media users were arrested in 2015, including the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, who was arrested in April 2015 over tweets that criticized the war on Yemen and for posting pictures and information about torture cases in Jaw Central Prison."
"About 202 Bahrainis were stripped of their citizenships in 2015, including 130 whose nationalities were revoked in cases classified by the authorities under the terrorism law, and 72 others who were stripped of their nationalities by an administrative decision issued by the Interior Ministry," it added.
The annual report also highlighted that "169 cases in 2015 were linked to acts of repression practiced against Shia Muslims, violating their religious freedoms, while 79 were recorded in 2014, and 57 in 2013."
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