Bahrain Human Rights Society Released its
Report on the
Women’s Prison
The Bahrain Human Rights Society launched its second report on
20 May 2009 about prison conditions in Bahrain. The report was prepared
after a visit by the Society on 9 May 2009 to the (Centre of reform
and rehabilitation for women - women’s prison) where a third of
the inmates were met. The Society launched the first reports on
the (Reform and Rehabilitation Centre in Jaw - the men’s prison)
in December 2006.
The current report provides analysis of laws relating to prisons
and the services provided at the women’s prison. It also highlights
the views of the inmates about the situation within the prison,
and compared it with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment
of Prisoners. The report concluded with comprehensive recommendations.
Despite the relative improvement in the conditions of inmates, but
the report pointed to some limited violations in the prison, including:
non-separation of inmates tried for civil suits from those convicted
of criminal offenses; the absence of a permanent nurse and the lack
of regular visits by doctors to check inmates and to ensure their
physical and mental health; the lack of an interpreter to facilitate
dealing with non-Bahraini inmates; the lack of programs to rehabilitate
inmates; no separation of different categories of inmates, which
constitutes a danger to the young; placing more than one inmate
in one cell with up to ten inmates in one cell in some cases; the
absence of attached bathrooms in the cells except those allocated
for women with children and patients with infectious diseases. Some
of the positive aspects mentioned in the report include: management
of the prison never uses handcuff on inmates; and good treatment
received by inmates from the prison staff; and reasonable hygienic
cells.
The report contained 20 recommendations including: establishing
a new prison for women; training of inmates to qualify for life
after imprisonment; reviewing the decision to deport some girls
who have families in Bahrain; enacting a new law for reform and
rehabilitation instead of the current law; applying alternative
penalties for minor offenses; introducing educational programs to
combat literacy and teach Arabic or English; addressing the mental
health of inmates; establishing a library equipped with books and
journals in different languages; carrying out medical and psychiatric
examination on inmates before admission to the prison and after
release; having a resident nurse; educating inmates about their
rights and providing leaflets in different languages; increasing
recreational and educational activities; forming a national human
rights commission, whose functions include the receipt of complaints
and inspection of prisons on a regular and sudden basis; allowing
civil society organizations and international organizations to carry
out regular visits at any time and without prior notice to places
of detention and imprisonment; accession to the Optional Protocol
to the Convention against Torture to prevent torture in places of
detention; activation of bilateral agreements between Bahrain and
other countries for the transfer of foreign women prisoners to their
countries; ratification of the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.
It is noted that a number of inmates were detained because of
violations of immigration laws, including non-renewal of residence.
Such cases can be tackled through the imposition of fines and coordination
with the relevant embassies. It was also noted that a large portion
of inmates are migrant workers, which requires coordination between
the Ministries of Interior and Labour to put strict conditions during
recruitment including a pledge not to engage in criminal practices
such as prostitution and organized crime. Violation of this pledge
should result in a fine and/or immediate deportation, taking into
account the family situation.
In terms of methodology, it could have been more useful if the
prison visit lasted for more than one day because of the importance
of the issue. Additionally, the portion of inmates met represents
only 31% of the overall total and this does not reflect the situation
of the inmates as a whole. For a comprehensive analysis, it is hoped
that future reports on prisons would cover more than half of the
inmates. It is also important to address the right of married female
prisoners to marital cohabitation
The recommendations contained in the report need cooperation
of several entities to put into effect. In addition to the Ministry
of Interior, stakeholders include the legislature to enact new laws
on prisons, which take into account Bahrain’s international obligations
in the treatment of prisoners and detainees. The Ministry of Finance
should also be involved in order to prioritize allocation of budget
for prisons. The academics should be involved at the university
level, especially departments of law and psychology, to conduct
researches aiming at assessing the effects of detention and imprisonment
on inmates’ lives and the lives of their families. Such researches
will help in developing a curriculum suitable for the development
of prisoners. There is need to establish a committee to consider
the situation of prisons and alternative penalties to imprisonment
such as community services, which applied in many other disciplines,
especially (63.16% of the inmates are young and did not reach the
age of 35), according to the report.
The Report is available only in Arabic through the following
link:
http://www.bhrs.org/uploadedfiles/women_prision_report_visit.pdf
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