Aya Majzoub, Bahrain Researcher at Human Rights Watch, said “the Bahraini Government should release people who should not have been held in detention in the first place.” In an interview with Fatima Yazbek, the Head of the GIDHR Committee on Reports and Studies, Majzoub said that the Bahraini Government should be using this opportunity, noting that “we welcome the release of 1486 detainees. That …

Sue Bolton, Moreland councilor and member of Socialist Alliance in Australia, supported the calls by Bahraini human rights organizations to release the political prisoners from the jails in Bahrain. In an interview with the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Bolton noted that “the Bahraini government is following the footsteps of some other repressive …

Professor Tom Collins, former Head of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in Bahrain, said “all medics, all over the world, should call on regimes to grant political dissenters an amnesty.” In an interview with Fatima Yazbek from the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Collins noted that “prison is a huge congregation setting, we expect a very explicit effort to protect prisoners …

Australian MP Fiona Patten described keeping prisoners in Bahraini prisons as a human rights “travesty”. In her interview with Fatima Yazbek from the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Patten said “Even without the virus, it is something that is no longer acceptable in modern society around the world.” She noted that amid the …

Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch in South Asia urged the Bahraini government to release prisoners after the Coronavirus outbreak. In an interview with the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (GIDHR), Phil Robertson said “we have been calling not just in Bahrain, but around the world, for governments to release political prisoners, to …

Activist Brian Dooley from Human Rights First said that we are in a new context because of the Coronavirus, indicating that “people, like Naji Fateel and other human rights defenders, should not be imprisoned with or without the virus.” In an interview with the Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Right, Dooley stated “I think …

Activist Evan Jones sent a clear message to the Bahraini government in which he said that COVID-19 is a global pandemic and that all political prisoners should be released, explaining that “this is not about political pressure, but human decency and providing essential health care protections to individuals inside Bahrain’s borders.” In an interview with …