Bahraini human rights organizations welcomed the statement of four UN experts calling for full respect of the human rights of the country's top Shiite leader, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, who is 76 years old.  The organizations demanded that the Bahraini authorities respond to what the experts called for to ensure that the medical staff can monitor the health situation of Sheikh Qassim without any kind of pressure. The organizations also demanded to allow him to receive visitors freely, to ensure that he continues to receive the medicines he needs after leaving the hospital, to end the house arrest, and not to violate his right to freedom of movement.

The human rights organizations pointed out that the security authorities deliberately restricted the right to receive treatment, and therefore, according to the experts’ statement, it took them three hours to allow the doctor to enter the house of Sheikh Isa Qassim in order to examine him on November 26, 2017.  The organizations added that the measures of house arrest were imposed (without a judicial ruling) and the doctors who were following up his case were unable to examine him for more than 500 days. The organization further said that all of these are violations of the right to adequate and necessary treatment.

The human rights organizations also stressed the need to enable an independent and reliable medical body that cooperates with the mechanisms of the United Nations to oversee the health situation of Sheikh Isa Qassim. The organizations called on the government of Bahrain again to completely withdraw the security presence around Sheikh Qassim’s area, and urged it to effectively remove all forms of police around his home in Duraz and lift the house arrest. They also demanded dropping all charges against him and returning his Bahraini nationality and civil rights.

It is worth mentioning that, according to various international reports, Bahrain's Shiite majority are persecuted due to their government's policies, as patterns of persecution take place at various levels, affecting their political and religious rights.

Signed human rights organizations are: