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Attacks on Doctors in Bahrain

Thousands of protesters in the small island Kingdom of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf took to the streets calling for government reform in February and March 2011. The Bahraini government’s response was brutal and systematic: shoot civilian protesters, detain and torture them, and erase all evidence.

On the frontline, treating hundreds of these wounded civilians, doctors had first-hand knowledge of government atrocities. As a result of their efforts to provide unbiased care for wounded protestors, the government initiated systematic and targeted attacks against medical personnel. This assault on healthcare workers and their patients constitutes extreme violations of the principle of medical neutrality and are grave breaches of international law.

PHR went to Bahrain to investigate and document these attacks. Our investigators spoke with eyewitnesses of abducted physicians, some of whom were ripped from their homes in the middle of the night by masked security forces. Our report, Do No Harm, documents other violations of medical neutrality including the beating, abuse, and threatening of Shi’a physicians at Salmaniya Hospital; government security forces stealing ambulances and posing as medics; the militarization of hospitals and clinics, thus obstructing medical care; and rampant fear that prevents patients from seeking urgent medical treatment. Other key findings in the report include the use excessive force against unarmed civilians and violent assaults on civilian detainees by government authorities and security forces.

Medicine and delivery of health care should unite rather than divide a country. There are immeasurable long-term consequences of these atrocities. For each doctor, nurse, or medic that the government disappears, many more civilians’ lives are impacted as patients go untreated. Bahrain’s abuses in the spring of 2011 are the most extreme violations of medical neutrality in the past half century, and history will remember them as such.

Read Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End Systematic Attacks on Doctors and Patients

• Executive Summary (pdf)
• Executive Summary (Arabic translation) (pdf)
• Full Report (pdf)

Learn More

• The Principle of Medical Neutrality
• Medics on Trial in Bahrain
• Read PHR's Summer/Fall Newsletter, featuring the Bahrain investigation.

• News
• Blog
• Research

Suppressing the narrative in Bahrain (February 13, 2012)

A year after the uprising in Bahrain began, the government has continued to deny entrance to journalists and human rights activists, including Richard Sollom of PHR.

Congressmen Confront Bahrain Over Recent NGO Visa Restrictions (February 3, 2012)

With the first anniversary of the popular uprising, and subsequent suppression, in Bahrain fast approaching, a number of human rights organizations are asking a dreaded question: What happens if there's another crackdown, and not enough international organizations are there to witness it?

US Should Not Reward Bahrain with Military Equipment (January 30, 2012)

Over the weekend, the US administration chose to move forward with the sale of military equipment to Bahrain, despite the fact that tear gas assaults on minority Shi’a neighborhoods recently took the life of a 6-day-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. Such a sale, even if it does not include weapons, sends the wrong message to the people of Bahrain who are protesting government oppression.

Bahrain detainee dies in custody, opposition sees torture (January 26, 2012)

A 19-year old Bahraini protester has died in the hospital while in custody. According to Bahraini police, he died as a result of chronic disease, but opposition groups argue that the detainee was injured in a protest, then detained and tortured. In light of the continued abuses of the Bahraini government, PHR is calling for the US government to hold fast to its decision to delay sales of military equipment to Bahrain.

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Bahraini Government’s Use of Tear Gas Claims Several Lives (January 27, 2012)

Over the last month, the Bahraini police have been using tear gas almost every night against protesters in residential areas. Specifically, the police have been targeting the Shi’a neighborhoods of Iker, Sitra, Nuwadrat, and Ma’ameer. While there are international guidelines for the proper use of tear gas, victims of such attacks describe the police using tear gas inappropriately – including firing into homes and other closed spaces. Such inappropriate use can have disastrous consequences. Since the start of the unrest in February 2011, at least 13 civilians have died from exposure to the tear gas, according to Bahraini civil society groups. They note that those who die from tear gas inhalation are usually people who are already vulnerable due to old age or disease, which make the gas’s effects more deadly.

Bogus Charges Against Bahraini Human Rights Activist Must Be Dropped (December 22, 2011)

Last week, Bahraini authorities wrongfully detained human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja, while she engaged in nonviolent, peaceful protest against Bahraini government policies last week. As this video shows, Zainab was dragged away by law enforcement officers who, according to Amnesty International allegedly beat her outside the view of cameras before taking her into custody against her will.

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Bahrain: Speak Out or Get Out (October 19, 2011)

See UPDATE to this May 2011 post. Ireland’s leading medical institution, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), which has trained many Bahraini physicians, has been conspicuously absent in the global call for the Kingdom of Bahrain to stop its relentless and systematic attack on medical workers.

Bahraini Authorities Release Medic (August 24, 2011)

Bahraini authorities released medic Rula Al-Saffar on 21 August following five months of arbitrary detention. Her release comes shortly after her three-week hunger strike to protest her arbitrary arrest and subsequent torture while in detention at the hands of Bahraini authorities.

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PHR Applauds Members of Congress Who Called For Open Access for NGOs to Bahrain (February 2012)

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) applauds members of Congress who wrote to the King of Bahrain, His Majesty Shaikh Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, to request open access for non-governmental organizations (NGOs). PHR was recently denied entry to Bahrain to continue its human rights investigation despite previous assurances from the Government of Bahrain.

Independent Body Announced to Investigate Human Rights Abuses in Bahrain (June 2011)

The establishment of this investigation commission, announced Wednesday, June 29, is a response to calls from PHR and other groups to investigate attacks on protesters and health professionals following popular protests in Bahrain earlier this year.

Richard Sollom Testifies on Bahrain to Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (May 2011)

Richard Sollom, Deputy Director of PHR, testified to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, US Congress, on Bahrain's attacks on and detention of medical professionals in the wake of protests against the government in February and March, 2011.

Do No Harm (April 2011)

PHR's emergency report documents and decries systematic human rights abuses in Bahrain, and persecution of health workers based on their knowledge of those abuses.

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Featured Report

Do No Harm

PHR's emergency report documents and decries systematic human rights abuses in Bahrain, and persecution of health workers based on their knowledge of those abuses. Read More »

Featured Expert

Nizam Peerwani, MD

A Chief Medical Examiner in Texas since 1979, Dr. Peerwani was one of two investigators for PHR of attacks on health professionals and their patients in Bahrain in 2011. Read More »