Executive Summary

1. This is a joint report by a group of Bahrain’s independent rights NGOs presenting the main
key findings from the ongoing effort to document human rights violations occurring in the
state of Bahrain in 2011. Our investigative report supports the rights of victims, no matter
their political or religious background. It is unaffiliated with the Bahraini government or any
foreign government and is firmly centred on domestic civil society advocacy of human
rights. The three organizations included in this report are: the Bahrain Centre for Human
Rights, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights and the Bahrain Human Rights
Society.
2. Serious violations of human rights started long before the Arab Spring of 2011, particularly
in August 2010, when at least 400 citizens were arrested including leading opposition
activists who were detained for almost 6 months, then released in February 2010. BCHR
had recorded claims of torture by these prisoners of conscience, including the prominent
blogger Ali Abdulemam, and monitored their cases carefully. The infrastructure of torture is
entrenched in the security apparatus, is accepted as a method to extract confession, and
was systematic policy, as noted by the HRW report, “Torture Redux”.
3. Since February 2011, Bahrain has been consumed by pro-democracy protests as part of
the political and social upheaval that is sweeping across the Arab world. The protests were
initially called for by unknown cyberactivists on facebook and a popular webforum called
BahrainOnline. The protests which centered on the occupation of Pearl Roundabout lasted
for a month. To end the protests, Saudi Arabia sent the Gulf Peninsula Shield across the
King Fahd causeway on March 14th to assist the Bahraini government in quelling the
protests and beginning a comprehensive security crackdown that began with the clearing
of the Pearl Roundabout.and then swept across the country as a form of collective and
indiscriminate punishment against a wide spectrum of the population; particularly in
impoverished villages and other urban centres. At least three deaths are attributed to the
wrongful use of teargas inside residential homes, which led to the suffocation of those
unable to escape in time.
4. Society as a whole was targeted through the arbitrary arrest of doctors, nurses, teachers,
academics, athletes, businessmen, and prominent opposition leaders who called for
peaceful democratic change. Up to 500 continue to be detained, the majority convicted to
outrageous sentences in draconian military courts.

Download the Full Report http://hotfile.com/dl/135933609/f099ae8/DraftBahrainTheHumanPrice.pdf.html?lang=en