Rights groups blast Bahrain over children rights abuses

Several Bahraini rights groups have strongly denounced the Al Khalifah regime’s continued violation of the rights of hundreds of children in breach of UN conventions.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) said on Friday that the regime authorities repeatedly violated the rights of children by imprisoning and committing acts of torture against them.

Their torture and imprisonment flagrantly violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the rights group added.

According to the BCHR, since 2011, more than 10 children under 18 have been killed by the regime forces across the Arab country. 

The rights body also noted that Bahraini security forces have detained more than 1,500 children under the Terrorism Act.

The group further denounced Bahraini regime authorities over the torture, long-term sentences and denial of education for hundreds of children across the tiny Persian Gulf country. 

The BCHR also called on international organizations to put pressure on Bahrain to end the violations.

Meanwhile, a number of other rights groups, including the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory, also expressed deep concern over the continuing violations by Bahraini authorities against children.

Amnesty International and other rights groups have repeatedly censured the Bahraini regime for its “rampant” human rights abuses against opposition activists and anti-government protesters.

Bahrainis demand opposition activists' release

After Friday prayers, large crowds of Bahraini anti-government protesters once again took to the streets of some villages and towns in and around the capital Manama to demand the immediate release of prominent opposition figures and political prisoners.

In Abu Saiba town, west of Manama, the angry demonstrators chanted slogans against the Al Khalifa regime, calling for King Hamad to step down. The protesters also denounced the regime’s harsh crackdown on dissent.

Hundreds of protesters in Adliyah town also called for the immediate release of all political prisoners.

Elsewhere, demonstrators in the northwestern village of Diraz condemned recent death sentences against two Bahrainis, saying that false confessions were extracted from them under torture.

The protest came after Bahrain's high criminal court condemned Hassan Mosa and Mohammed Ramadan to death over their alleged role in a 2014 bombing that killed a police officer.

Anti-regime protesters have been holding demonstrations on the streets of Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for the Al Khalifa family to relinquish power.

The ongoing heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful demonstrations has left scores of Bahrainis dead and hundreds of others injured

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