Its president is Houda Ezra Nonoo, making the Society unique in the Arab world in being the only human rights group headed by a Jewish woman.

In association with the National Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women, the society launched the Respect Movement, a petition in support of the Personal Status Law.

[3] The alleged plot aimed to instigate sectarian strife and maintain the dominance of the ruling Sunni community over the majority Shia.

The Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society's defence of leftist writer, Sameera Rajab, also brought the centre into conflict with Islamists: in 2004 the Akhbar Al Khaleej columnist received death threats from Shia Islamists after she described Iraqi cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as an 'American general' for his tacit support of the US invasion.

The society has also clashed with Salafists, specifically after the group organised a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Al Dana boat tragedy and Asalah MP Adel Mouwda criticised the laying of a wreath as against religious values.