Civil rights groups call for judicial reforms

Three civil rights groups staged a demonstration at the Public Prosecution building here yesterday calling for judicial reforms and changes in the administration, accusing the judiciary of being “prejudiced against women”.

The demonstration, organised by the now dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), Women’s Petition Committee (WPC) and National Committee for Martyrs and Victims of Torture, called for the removal of the Public Prosecutor, Shaikh Abdul Rahman Bin Jaber Al Khalifa, and for reforms in the prosecution office.

The WPC also called for the removal of one of the lower court judges whom they accused of “favouring men in all of his rulings”.

Group president Ghada Jamsheer accused the prosecutor, the Ministry of Interior and the Sharia Court of discrimination against women.

Jamsheer, who cited a number of cases that had been documented by the WPC, accused the Hamad Town police station of concealing pictures it took of a Bahraini woman beaten up by her husband, with the Public Prosecutor office failing to force the authorities to turn the evidence over.

“This is one of a number of cases that the WPC had documented of discrimination against women by the authorities,” she said.

The group’s other demands include the establishment of the Personal Law (family law) and preventing Sharia judges from issuing official marriage certificates at home.

The group wanted a special office at the Ministry of Justice to issue such certificates.

BCHR Director Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja said that having Shaikh Abdul Rahman, who was the head of the former National Security Court, as the head of the prosecution office reflected negatively on the image of reforms undertaken by the government. “That court had a very negative image in the minds of many,” he said.

Al Khawaja also accused the office of being politically motivated seeking to silence political activists and the media by detaining them for long and using clauses from the National Security law.

The writer is a Bahraini journalist based in Manama