Amnesty warns human rights abuses

unabated before Bahrain Grand Prix

Amnesty International report details chilling crackdown on dissent
respects freedom of expression is pure fiction

Notion that Bahrain

Owen Gibson
Thursday 16 April 2015 00.04BST

A major report from Amnesty International released to coincide with this weekends
Formula One grand prix has warned that human rights abuses in Bahrain continue
unabated despite repeated assurances from the authorities that the situation is
improving.
The Bahrain Grand Prix has become a prism through which human rights groups have
sought to focus attention on the situation in the country after protests in the capital by prodemocracy campaigners in 2011 caused the race to be cancelled.
The Amnesty report details dozens of cases of detainees being beaten, deprived of sleep
and adequate food, burned with cigarettes, sexually assaulted, subjected to electric shocks
and burned with an iron. One was raped by having a plastic pipe inserted into his anus.
It said the report showed torture, arbitrary detentions and excessive use of force against
peaceful activists and government critics remained widespread in Bahrain.
The organisation said the report showed the Bahraini authorities continued to abuse
human rights despite repeatedly insisting they had exceeded the provisions set out in a
report produced by the UN-backed Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry in 2011.
Earlier this year the UKs foreign secretary Philip Hammond praised Bahrain as a country
travelling in the right direction and other western countries have praised Bahrains
progress.
But Amnesty concludes: More than three years after Bahrain agreed at the highest level to
accept and implement all the BICI recommendations, the steps introduced so far while
positive on a number of aspects have been piecemeal and have had little impact in
practice.
Partly due to the unapologetic attitude of the Formula One chief, Bernie Ecclestone, who
has tilted the calendar away from Europe and towards Asia and the Middle East, the sport
has found itself at the centre of the debate over whether human rights should be a factor in

staging major sporting events.

Two years ago Ecclestone said he thought Bahrain was stupid to host the grand prix
because it gave demonstrators a platform to protest. He said it was not for him to judge
how a county ran its own affairs. Were not here, or we dont go anywhere, to judge how a
country is run, he said. Human rights are that the people that live in a country abide by
the laws of that country.
Dissidents and exiled campaigners have warned that hosting the race increases instances of
human rights abuses because authorities clamp down further on freedom of speech and
assembly.
Amnestys report alleges the authorities have conducted a chilling crackdown on dissent,
with activists and government critics rounded up and jailed, including some detained for
posting comments on Twitter or in one case for reading a poem at a religious festival.
Public demonstrations in Manama, the capital, have been banned for nearly two years.
Said Boumedouha, Amnesty Internationals Middle East and North Africa deputy director,
said: As the worlds eyes fall on Bahrain during the grand prix this weekend, few will
realise the international image the authorities have attempted to project of the country as a
progressive reformist state committed to human rights masks a far more sinister truth.
Four years on from the uprising, repression is widespread and rampant abuses by the
security forces continue. The notion that Bahrain respects freedom of expression is pure
fiction. Where is the freedom in a country where peaceful activists, dissidents and
opposition leaders are repeatedly rounded up and arbitrarily arrested simply for tweeting
their opinions, and reading a poem can get you thrown in jail?
The Bahraini authorities have pointed to the economic benefits of hosting the grand prix,
arguing it supports the employment of 4,000 locals and brings almost $300m into the
economy.
This week, an organisation called Americans for Democracy on Human Rights in Bahrain
said it had mediated an agreement with Formula One to implement a policy that analyses
the human rights impact its presence might have on a host country. How that works in
practice remains to be seen.
It said: As a result of that process, Formula One Group has committed to taking a number
of further steps to strengthen its processes in relation to human rights in accordance with
the standards provided for by the guidelines. Formula One also takes this opportunity to
reaffirm its commitment to respect internationally recognised human rights.
During the mediation process Nabeel Rajab, a member of ADHRBs advisory board and the
president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, was arrested.
The organisation said: This arrest amounts to a signal that the government will broach no
criticism or dissent before or during the race, which has previously attracted significant

anti-government protest.

Topics
Formula One 2015
Bahrain
Middle East and North Africa
Amnesty International
Formula One
Motor sport