GIDHR: Bahrain Arbitrarily Arrested Children, Gulf States Commit Human Rights Violations

By Staff, GIDHR

The Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights [GIDHR] issued a summary for the crackdown on human rights in the Gulf States in the first 8 months of 2019. The report highlighted the human rights violations committed in Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arabic Emirates and Kuwait.

The report presented statistics published for the first time that document targeting the children in Bahrain. According to the report, 30 children were arbitrarily arrested between January and May 2019, 6 children were subjected to enforced disappearance for a period not less than 2 days and exceed 2 weeks in some cases, and 33 children were tortured. The report documented 33 violations, ranging between ill-treatment and denial of rights, against 17 detained children.

Moreover, the report shed light on the extent of the humanitarian disaster in Yemen because of the war and the military operations of the Saudi-led coalition against the Yemenis. The latest figures said that around 1.2 million children live in conflict areas where there is a high level of violence, around 360 thousand children suffer from acute malnutrition, and more than 80 thousand children under the age of 5 died because of starvation. According to a report issued by the UNICEF in June 2019, a mother and 6 babies die every 2 hours because of complications during pregnancy and labor, while around 49% of the hospitals and health centers are, fully or partially, disrupted. The Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population said in a statement that by the end of 2018, 92% to 95% of the devices in hospitals and health centers have been disrupted.

In addition, the report pointed out to the mass executions which took place in Saudi Arabia in April against 37 men over political motivated cases. While there are more than 20 other men on death row in the Kingdom, 3 of them were arrested under the age of 18. The report mentioned that detained female activists were tortured, sexually harassed, ill-treated, and forcibly disappeared because of their activism.

Furthermore, the report mentioned the UAE authorities arrest for eight Lebanese men, referring them for trial, and sentencing some of them to prison. There were allegations of subjecting these men to torture and ill-treatment, and their trial was marred by violating the international standards of fair trials, including but not limited to, denying them their right to legal counsel and subjecting them to prolonged solitary confinement.