CCS wrote to the Prime Minister of Bahrain to protest the treatment of health professionals in Bahrain. Following their ethical duty to treat protesters, nurses and doctors have been arrested and disappeared.
Learn More
Doctors Detained in Bahrain Face Accusations of Medical Abuses, PBS Newshour
May 4, 2011
His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa
Prime Minister
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
P.O. Box 547
Government Road
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Your Excellency:
We are an independent organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for colleagues all over the world. We write now in deep concern for the arrests and disappearances of medical and health professionals in Bahrain who have followed their ethical duty to treat protesters in need.
According to reports from Bahrain, doctors are disappearing as part of a systematic attack on medical staff. Many physicians are missing following interrogations by unknown security forces at Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama. According to family members, the physicians are being held incommunicado in unknown locations.
Amidst civil unrest, medical professionals and institutions must remain firmly dedicated to their duty to provide medical care to those in need, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, political affiliation, or other social divisions. These attacks are grave violations, not only of medical neutrality, but of well-founded customary international law. Furthermore, these acts clearly violate Bahrain”s responsibilities under its own constitution as well as international human rights treaties, which codify the government”s responsibility to provide access to health care.
We join the American College of Physicians, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Medical Association, the International Federation of Health and Human Right Organizations, the National Arab Medical Organization, and other organizations concerned with rights of medical professionals, in calling on the Government of Bahrain to cease attacks on hospitals, patients, and medical professionals. We urge you to release the arrested doctors, nurses, and to release all other detained and disappeared health professionals.
Sincerely yours,
Eugene Chudnovsky
Alexander Greer
Joel Lebowitz
Walter Reich
Paul Plotz
Co-chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists
Cc: Ambassador Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo
Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain
3502 International Drive NW?
Washington, DC 20008
Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Feltman
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520 USA
Assistant Secretary Michael Posner
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520 USA
Ms. Mareham Youssef
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Gulf Affairs
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520 USA
His Excellency J. Adam Ereli
Ambassador of the United States to the Kingdom of Bahrain
Embassy of the United States of America
Bldg 979, Road 3119, Block 331, Zinj
Kingdom of Bahrain
Via email to: info@mofa.gov.bh