[2][3] In November 2005 a court sentenced AlKhawaja to one year in prison on charges which included "inciting hatred" and accusing authorities of corruption, under provisions prescribed by the 1976 Penal Code.

[4] Although its license was revoked, the BCHR is still functioning after gaining wide internal and external support for its struggle to promote human rights in Bahrain.

The ex Acting President is Maryam Al-Khawaja’s Although a young organization, BCHR has carried out many projects, including advocacy, training, workshops, seminars, media campaigns and reporting to UN mechanisms and international NGOs.

[1] The centre mainly works by campaigning on and documenting/releasing reports on local issues including the targeting of human rights defenders or political activists targeting, the detention of Bahraini citizens, the detention of more than 500 men - including six Bahrainis - at Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, migrant workers conditions and rights of migrant workers, restrictive local laws, torture and abuse of an unknown number of citizens during a period of local unrest in the 1990s (see: Torture in Bahrain and 1990s Uprising in Bahrain), and women's rights.

)[9] On 9 February 2010, Alkhawaja was removed from a Turkish Airlines flight at Bahrain International Airport as he was about to leave for Istanbul to attend a human rights conference.

[11][12] Since 2005, Nabeel Rajab has been the subject of ongoing harassment including physical attacks and smear campaigns in the media (official TV, radio channels, Bahrain news agency and newspapers close to government).

Thousands of telephone text messages were sent to people in Bahrain via a company in South Africa that was paid through the private account of Sheikh Ahmed bin Ateyatalla Al-Khalifa, former Minister of state.

[citation needed] In March 2007, Rajab was interrogated by the Office of the Public Prosecutor in relation to an article published by BCHR about the 'Bandargate Scandal', a government plan to marginalize the majority Shia community in Bahrain.

[21] During this time, the authorities imposed a ban preventing Rajab from engaging in any new business in Bahrain that made it difficult for him to earn a living.

[29] The Observatory reported that "reliable sources" told it about an anonymous defamatory campaign launched in early May 2011 against Nabeel Rajab and Maryam Alkhawaja, with the "active and passive support" of the Bahraini authorities.

[31] Eight days later, his family reported that a group of 25 plainclothes police officers had come to his home at night and searched it, though al-Mahafda himself had been absent.

[33] On 5 December 2011, al-Mahafdha, Rajab, and Mohammed Al-Maskati of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights were named in a death threat by Adel Flaifel, a former State Securities Services official, causing the International Federation for Human Rights and World Organisation Against Torture to call for an international letter-writing campaign on their behalf.