By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East
MANAMA, Bahrain – Bahrain is set to open a rehabilitation center for torture victims on June 26, World Torture Day. Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) put forward the idea and has coordinated its efforts with a variety of local, regional, and international organizations, with substantial NGO participation.
According to BHRWS regional and international director Faisal Fulad, “This center will be run by the NGOs and will be linked to the International Red Cross. The UN Human Rights Council and civil societies in the region will also coordinate with the rehabilitation center.”
The center, the Bahrain Rehabilitation Center for Torture Survivors (BRCTS) will take up the cases of political prisoners, activists, migrant workers and women who are victims of torture. The center will provide legal consultants to the victims, whether Bahraini or non-Bahrainis, who are victims of torture.
Additionally, a center for torture victims opened in Lebanon in November 2007. While, only operational for a few months, center specialists say that positive results are already visible. The Centre Nassim provides assistance to torture victims from the Lebanese civil war, which ended in 1990, as well as victims of more recent torture. At the center, torture victims receive legal and financial advice, and medical treatment for the physical and mental effects of torture.
For more information, please see:
AHN – Bahrain Set to Have Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims – 24 June 2008
BBC – Helping Lebanon’s Torture Victims – 24 June 2008
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BERLIN, Germany – On June 23, more than 40 states attended a conference on the Middle East in Berlin. Those in attendance included members of the Middle East Quartet: the US, EU, Russia and the UN.
At the Berlin conference donor states committed $242 million for security projects in the West Bank. The money will be passed to the Palestinian Authority over a period of three years. The money will fund projects with aims of putting more trained police officers on the streets, rebuilding courthouses, and training judges. For example, the European Union Police Mission in the Palestinian Territories, which trains police officers, will be expanded with help from these funds.
Tony Blair, the Quartet envoy, stated that a functioning criminal justice system was “fundamental for a two-state solution.” “There will never be a two-state solution just by people sitting in a room negotiating … a state will only be created when people take the action to create the reality that allows a state to be credible.”
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad agreed that better security was important to the creation of a Palestinian state, but also argued that these improvements must be accompanied by accompanied by other measures such as an immediate freeze on new Israeli settlements and the dismantling of Israeli checkpoints.
For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Donors Agree $242m for Palestinians – 25 June 2008
AFP – Berlin Conference Pledges Security Aid for Palestinians – 24 June 2008
Associated Press – Countries Commit $242M to Strengthen Palestinians – 24 June 2008
Human Rights Watch – Occupied Palestinian Territories: Donors Should Press Security Forces to End Abuse – 23 June 2008
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LONDON, United Kingdom – June 23 marked a three day summit, organized by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), to highlight the rights violations endured by hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews. JJAC is an international coalition of 77 organizations from 20 countries.
This is the inaugural summit organized by the JJAC and serves dual purposes: first, to put the issue of Arab Jewish refugees on the international agenda; second, to record testimony from individual refugees and others affected by Arab states’ discriminatory policies and practices.
The group estimates that over 900,000 Jews have been forced to leave their homes in Arab countries since the creation of Israel in 1948. 600,000 absorbed by the new Israeli state and others immigrated to the US, UK, and France. Advocates state that the scale and extent of the violation of Arab Jews’ rights is equivalent to the plight of the Palestinian refugees, which receives more international attention.
According to the BBC Arab Affairs analyst, Magdi Abdelhadi, the issue is extremely controversial as the number of refugees and the reason for leaving remains disputed.
For more information, please see:
The Guardian – Lyn Julius: Recognising the Plight of Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries – 25 June 2008
BBC – London Summit on Jewish Refugees – 23 June 2008
Ha’aretz – Mideast Jewish Refugees Launch Campaign for International Recognition – 22 June 2008
