Showing posts with label Freedom of Assembly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freedom of Assembly. Show all posts

Monday, November 21, 2011

Arms Deals and Human Rights: Multi-Party Obligations in Bahrain


Flikr, Msha7welhom
By Samuel Halpert
It’s been a bad year in Bahrain. After only four days of peaceful protests for political reform last February, the army opened fire on the unarmed protesters--as well as ambulances that arrived to carry away the wounded. The carnage has continued through spring, summer, and into this fall. In August and October, Human Rights Watch documented incidents of police rounding up suspected dissidents and subsequently beating and torturing them in detention--medics who have treated victims of state violence have suffered a similar fate.

So, when the Department of Defense proposed
a $53 million arms sale to Bahrain this September, the idea was unpopular with many.