العربية
The human rights situation in Bahrain continued to deteriorate in March 2018. 1668 serious human rights violations were observed between the 1st and 31st of March 2018, including arbitrary arrests, house raids, unfair trials, crackdown on peaceful protests, restrictions on freedom of movement, prohibition of Friday prayers, media materials that incite hate speech, enforced disappearance, torture, ill-treatment, injuries, destruction or confiscation of property and violation of freedom of religion and belief.
While the number of violations in March exceeded that of the previous month by 563 violations, the total violations were distributed as follows: 115 cases of arbitrary arrests; 42 cases of forced disappearances; 96 citizens received arbitrary sentences – the sum of which amounted to 599 years and 11 months in prison; 60 cases of torture and ill-treatment; 489 media materials that incite hate speech; 152 unlawful raids on houses and residential facilities; 86 crackdowns on peaceful gatherings and protests; 550 individuals who were arrested or accused were referred to court because of trials that violate freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; violation of freedom of movement by the continuation of the siege on Duraz area for 648 days and the imposition of house arrest on the highest religious authority for the Shiite Muslims in Bahrain, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, for 311 days without a judicial order or administrative decision; violation of freedom of religion and belief by prohibiting the Friday prayer in Duraz 5 times in March bringing the number of prohibitions to 90 times since 2016; 1 case of unlawful confiscation of property; and 10 cases of destruction of property.
In March, Bahrain witnessed 296 protests, while since the beginning of the year the number of protests has reached 1153 even though there has been a complete ban on peaceful assembly for 1277 days. The number of arbitrary arrests since the beginning of the year has reached 315. Since 2012, the nationalities of 579 citizens have been revoked for political reasons. Moreover, since the beginning of the year, there have been 358 illegal raids on homes and residential facilities. The total number of human rights violations that occurred in January, February and March are 3539.