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For Immediate Release

PHR Condemns Arrest of Prominent Bahraini Human Rights Activist and Family Members; Urges Immediate US Government Intervention

Cambridge, Mass - 04/09/2011

Cambridge, Mass. — April 9, 2011 — One of Bahrain’s leading human rights activists, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, was physically assaulted and arrested early today. Only hours after PHR had concluded an in-country emergency investigation regarding issues of medical neutrality, Bahraini authorities continued their ongoing campaign of night time arrests of human rights and opposition leaders, which has also systematically targeted physicians. Early Saturday, police forces stormed the apartment of Mr. al-Khawaja, and beat and arrested him in front of his daughter. The authorities also arrested two of his sons-in-laws, who were present in the apartment. The additional arrests of those family members clearly indicate that any person can be targeted for arrest by Bahraini authority.

“PHR strongly condemns these arbitrary arrests, which clearly violate internationally guaranteed human rights and legal standards,” said Frank Donaghue, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights. “PHR calls on President Obama and the international community, including the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to intervene urgently with the Bahraini government to cease its ongoing arrest campaign, and to release unconditionally all individuals whose internationally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech, movement and to organize have been violated.”

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is an independent organization that uses medicine and science to stop mass atrocities and severe human rights violations against individuals. We are supported by the expertise and passion of health professionals and concerned citizens alike.

Since 1986, PHR has conducted investigations in more than 40 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, the United States, the former Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.

  • 1988 — First to document Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Kurds
  • 1996 — Exhumed mass graves in the Balkans
  • 1996 — Produced critical forensic evidence of genocide in Rwanda
  • 1997 — Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • 2003 — Warned of health and human rights catastrophe prior to the invasion of Iraq
  • 2004 — Documented and analyzed the genocide in Darfur
  • 2005 — Detailed the story of tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay
  • 2010 — Investigated the epidemic of violence spread by Burma’s military junta
  • 2011 — Championed the principle of noninterference with medical services
                  in times of armed conflict and civil unrest during the Arab Spring
  • 2012 — Trained doctors, lawyers, police, and judges in the Democratic Republic of
                  the Congo, Kenya, and Syria on the proper collection of evidence in
                  sexual violence cases
  • 2013 — Won first prize in the Tech Challenge for Atrocity Prevention with MediCapt,
                  our mobile app that documents evidence of torture and sexual violence

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