Mr. President,

The sheer number of recommendations to Bahrain addressing the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, are indicative of the alarming human rights situation in the country, which has deteriorated since 2016. This present reality makes us question whether the acceptance of many of these recommendations will in fact translate to action towards implementing them.

We ask why, if the government intends to reverse its crackdown on freedom of expression, did they this week interrogate and place journalists Faysal Hayyat and Ahmed Radhi on a travel ban, alongside other activists?

We would like to know when the government intends to release photojournalist Ahmed Al Mousawi, arbitrarily detained since 2014, and the 9 other journalists currently detained in the country?

When will the government release human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, arbitrarily detained since June 2016, and human rights defender Ebtisam Al-Sayegh, arbitrarily detained since July 2017, and reportedly tortured, including through sexual abuse, by the National Security Agency while in custody during a prior detention in May 2017.

Will the government cease harassing the family members of human rights defender Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, and release Nazar Sayed Namaa Alwadaei, Hajar Mansoor Hassan and Mahmood Marzooq? Will they receive redress for the ill treatment, possibly amounting to torture, inflicted on them since March 2017? Will “terrorism” charges against them be dropped?

We ask whether the government’s newfound commitment to freedom of expression will lead to the reversal of the illegal 4 June 2017 order to shutter Al Wesat, the sole remaining independent newspaper in Bahrain? Will proceedings to dissolve Wa’ad, the country’s leading secular, leftist opposition group, be halted?

Implementing the UPR recommendations the government has accepted necessitates comprehensive reforms to the web of legislation used to repress all criticism and opposition, and which intimidates so many to self-censor.

This includes the Press Law (Decree 47/2002) and Decree 68/2016; the Law on Public Gatherings 18/1973 (as amended) and Law 26/2005 political associations; the Penal Code (in particular Articles 165, 178, 180, 214, and 216) and Anti-Terrorism Law 58/2006.

Human rights are not “safeguarded” by this national legislation, as the government claimed during this UPR, but are routinely violated through their enforcement.

We call on this Council to hold Bahrain to the commitments it has made today, so that the human rights defenders, journalists, political opposition and Shi’a religious leaders, as well as their families, no longer have to pay such a heavy price for exercising their rights.

Thank you.

21 September 2017 – A discriminatory law on nationality was today used by the Bahraini Government to expel a 20 year old in a series of reprisals against his family.

Hussein Abalqassem, 20, was expelled from Bahrain today, in the latest reprisal against the extended Al-Fakhrawi family. Hussein is one of four brothers who have been subject to reprisals by the Government of Bahrain. Their uncle, Karim Al-Fakhrawi, was tortured to death by the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2011.

Despite being born in Bahrain by a Bahraini mother, Hussein does not hold Bahraini nationality, because only fathers can pass Bahraini nationality. Hussein, who has a non-Bahraini father, was treated as an illegal resident.

Hussein’s expulsion from Bahrain represents the latest targeting of the extended Al-Fakhrawi family in recent years. His older brother was expelled last year to Iran. Hussein’s elder half-brothers, Ali and Mohammed, were arrested last year and had unfair criminal charges brought against them. Ali and Mohammed are from the Al-Fakhrawi family.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “The government is deliberately targeting the entire family of Karim Fakhrawi, who was tortured to death in the custody of the National Security Agency. Hussein Abalqassem is someone who should have been born with Bahraini nationality and allowed to live his life freely. He has been punished twice: for being born into a family the Bahraini regime has targeted for reprisals, and by the grotesque law barring mothers from passing on their nationality to their children. This discriminatory law must be quashed.”

Karim Al-Fakhrawi: Torture in the NSA

Systematic torture by the NSA in 2011 was recorded by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) and led to the stripping of their powers. In April 2011, businessman Karim Al-Fakhrawi was tortured to death in NSA custody. Al-Fakhrawi was a co-founder of Bahrain’s only independent newspaper, Al-Wasat, which was arbitrarily and indefinitely suspended in June 2017.

The BICI’s findings led to the prosecution of two NSA officers for Al-Fakhrawi’s killing. However, prosecutors sought assault convictions rather than murder or torture convictions. In a 2014 investigation, Human Rights Watch found that the overwhelming evidence indicated “the defendants beat Fakhrawi in a sustained and purposeful manner, while taking no steps to address his obviously grave physical condition thereafter. The court did not even attempt to address these undisputed facts in offering its conclusion that the defendants intended only to assault Fakhrawi.” The two NSA officers were sentenced to seven-year sentences for assault, later reduced to three-year sentences by an appeals court.

The BICI’s findings and Al-Fakhrawi’s killing resulted in the Government of Bahrain stripping the NSA of law enforcement powers in November 2011.

But the NSA was re-granted powers of arrest in January 2017. Since then, the agency has pursued reprisals against human rights defenders and activists. Human rights defender Ebtisam Al-Sayegh was tortured and sexually assaulted at NSA headquarters in Muharraq in May 2017. NSA agents used threats in attempt to make her cease her human rights work. When she did not, NSA agents arrested her in July 2014; she has been charged under the anti-terrorism law.

Discrimination Against Women

The inability of mothers to pass on their nationality to their children is a long-standing issue within Bahrain’s Nationality Law. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has raised concern over this law and the government’s lethargy on amending this discriminatory law.

Bahrain’s nationality law is in violation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Article 9.2 of which states “States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.”

Laila Matar of Human Rights Watch began the panel welcoming the audience and immediately raising the High Commissioner’s statement in which he expressed concern over increasing reports of torture in Bahrain and the shutdown of civil and political society space. She continued, highlighting that recently, Bahrain had reintroduced the death penalty after a multi-year de facto moratorium. Ending her opening remarks, she introduced the panelists, Ariel Plotkin of Amnesty International, Devin Kenney of ADHRB, and Harriet McCulloch of Reprieve.

Ariel Plotkin of Amnesty International opened the panel by introducing Amnesty International’s new report, No One Can Protect You about the Bahraini government’s increasing suppression of civil and political society activists and human rights defenders, increasing torture, nationality revocations, forced explusions, and the excessive use of force against civilians. This suppression is visible, she stated, in the lack of Bahraini activists on the panel in person and it has continued even up to the Human Rights Council, with the government summoning Ebrahim Sharif for interrogation just this morning.

Plotkin noted that among the activists who have recently been detained is Nabeel Rajab, who faces up to 15 more years in prison for peaceful dissent.  Another activist facing persecution is Ebtisam al-Saegh, who was arrested, interrogated, and tortured for her human rights work. Plotkin stated that Nabeel and Ebtisam are among “scores of activists who have been summoned on baseless charges for their peaceful expression.” Ebtisam’s case and the torture she faced is part of a larger recent trend. “In May alone Amnesty has received reports of 80 to 90 activists who were tortured or threatened to stop their political activities by the NSA.”

As a result of this increasing suppression, Plotkin observed, activists are more afraid than before to speak out. While activists in Bahrain have been scared before, what is new is activists outside Bahrain are now afraid of speaking out. They have faced intimidation as the government pressures their family members who have remained inside Bahrain, whether through interrogation or prosecution.

Plotkin noted that the repression inside Bahrain has reached new heights. Amnesty has observed a “higher level of excessive use of force, including by NSA members” in recent months. Amnesty has also “documented for the first time in a long time, the use of live ammunition.” Plotkin ended her remarks by highlighting that despite the increasing repression, the “international community has reacted in a shocking manner, without condemning the crackdown.” She finished by stating that “as a result of the lack of an international response, members of the once vibrant civil society are unable to speak here today whether because of fear, being in jail, or travel bans.”

In his remarks, Devin Kenney, Legal Fellow at ADHRB discussed Bahraini domestic legislation. The value in examining a country’s laws, he observed, is that the law is the “voice of the state. It is what the government chooses to say, under its own processes, in its own words.” By examining the law, if you can demonstrate the law itself is abusive, you can move past arguments about whether the government behaved abusively in specific instances.

Kenney first looked at Bahrain’s counter-terror statutes, the base law of which was passed in 2006 and then amended in 2013 and again in 2014. He noted that “the original 2006 law established an extremely vague and broad definition of terrorism.” This definition encompasses public protest, meaning that Bahrain’s provision on financing and other related aspects of terrorism becomes deeply problematic. To illustrate the intensely problematic nature of the counter-terror law, Kenney quoted the law itself, highlighting that the law defines terrorism to cover, not just the political use of violence, but also to include

Any … illegitimate means constituting a crime punishable by law to which an offender resorts … with the purpose of infringing public security or endangering the safety and security of the Kingdom or of damaging national unity … it such means by its nature … harms the environment, public health, the national economy, or public property, institutions or facilities; … or prevents or impedes public authorities, houses of worship, or institutes of learning from exercising their functions.”

After quoting the original 2006 law, Kenney analyzed it, saying that the law has been used to make any form of public protest illegal. Moreover, as the law never defines “terrorist purpose,” the government has broad space and authority to use the law flexibly.

In addition to the already overly broad and flexible 2006 law, Kenney noted that the 2013 and 2014 amendments add increasingly regressive material. One article from the 2013 amendment, he states, criminalizes “anyone who incites another to commit a terrorist crime” even if there are no results. Beyond that, the 2013 amendments authorize denaturalization for committing various acts. As a result of this, “simple verbal criticism of the government could result in the person being made stateless.” The 2014 amendment, Kenney noted, formally removed most vestiges of protection against arbitrary detention, though in practice there was little protection to begin with.

Via video message, the exiled Bahraini activist Yusuf al-Hoori described the pressure he faced from the Bahraini government to stop his activism, although he lives outside of Bahrain. He told of a call he received from his father in a police station. “My father was tired and worried and fasting at the time. He told me to stop my social media or he will not be released.” Al-Hoori noted that while he was thinking about what his father said, that he received another call, from his sister. When she called him, she was crying and she asked me to “stop my activities and apologize to the King of Bahrain.” Al-Hoori realized that when his sister called him, she was under pressure from the Bahraini government to do so. But, he states, even as he was worried for his family and for the pressure they were receiving, “I felt a conviction to continue my human rights work.” Al-Hoori finished his remarks with a request for the international community, to pressure Bahrain to stop its suppression of human rights and of human rights defenders in Bahrain.

Harriet McCulloch of Reprieve followed Yusuf’s remarks with a discussion of five death penalty cases that illustrate what Ariel, Devin, and Yusuf faced. Reprieve works on death penalty issues including on the cases of Abbas al-Samea, Sami Mushaima, and Ali al-Singace, Husain Ali Moosa, and Mohamed Ramadan. The government’s targeting and prosecution of these men on terror crimes demonstrates that the “global war on terror paradigm is being used to suppress political dissent.”

The police, McCulloch stated, targeted these five men because of their political affiliations and dissent. They were tortured and did not get a fair trial and three men were executed even though the government presented no solid evidence linking them to an actual terror crime. While the cases of these five men are shocking, they are not without precedent in the region, as Saudi Arabia is doing the same thing: targeting and prosecuting peaceful dissidents on grounds and for crimes that the international community would not consider “real” crimes.

McCulloch highlighted that while this prosecution of peaceful dissidents for alleged terror crimes goes on in Bahrain, governments around the world have thus far failed to put enough pressure on Bahrain and its neighbors to halt the repression. To the contrary, Donald Trump and Theresa May both visited the region and in their remarks they only discussed security, without touching on human rights. By ignoring human rights, McCulloch stated, May and Trump have signaled that the Bahraini government can get away with these practices – arbitrary detention, torture, unfair trials featuring coerced confessions – with little or no international condemnation. This is because the broader international response to Bahrain’s use of the death penalty, in particular, has been extremely weak, especially in the UK. The failure of the US and the UK to address these issues is in large part due to their acceptance of the “false narrative of Bahrain as a reforming state.” This is problematic, because international law specifies that the death penalty should be used only for crimes that qualify as the “most serious crimes.” The charges and crimes these five men face do not accord with this, in particular because of vastly unfair trials and their torture. The UK’s acceptance of this false narrative is illustrated by its continued praise of Bahrain for moving in the right direction of human rights, itself demonstrated by the UK’s continued training of Bahraini security personnel.

McCulloh stated that while the UK has appeared problematic in addressing rights violations in Bahrain, the international community has also been slow to respond. In past two years, Human Rights Council members have not been able to agree on a joint statement condemning Bahrain’s human rights record. “The UK has played a specifically negative role, lobbying to water down the last joint statement.”

McCulloch ended her remarks by noting that while Bahrain states it is fighting terrorism, “executing peaceful dissidents and torturing them do not help in fighting terrorism.” If Bahrain wants to make progress and be recognized as making progress, it must cooperate with the mandates of the Special Procedures, although it has not allowed any Rapporteurs into the country in 10 years.

Ending the remarks section of the panel, Matar, noted that at the beginning of the 36^th Session of the Human Rights Council, a group of NGOs sent a joint statement to Council members calling on states to take a principled approach to Bahrain and its human rights violations. This approach can follow from some select states’ voluntary pledge to follow a previous joint statement which laid out a set of objective principles that, if a state should meet them, would warrant action in the Council.

Of the 60 defendants, 24 are outside Bahrain and being tried in absentia. Four of the defendants are women who have been held in pre-trial detention over six months, since February.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, BIRD: “It is very likely that Bahrain’s mass trial of sixty people will be neither credible nor fair. Human rights defenders and journalists have been convicted under the same law. In anti-terrorism trials, the state regularly denies defendants access to legal counsel and often convicts based on coerced confessions. UN anti-terrorism experts must be allowed to visit Bahrain and observe the trial.”

BIRD and Article 19 have criticised the use of the anti-terrorism law to prosecute human rights defenders, opposition critics, and journalists. Under the anti-terrorism law, defendants face up to life imprisonment and the deprivation of their citizenship.

The human rights organisations last year reported: “Detained individuals are often denied their right to contact their family and lawyer, and may be interrogated, presented to the prosecution and even go to trial without a lawyer. During long periods of pretrial detention, many suspects and victims of arbitrary arrests are allegedly subjected to ill-treatment, torture and coerced to confess to pre-prepared charges.”

The President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights faces trial tomorrow, 7 August, for tweeting about the Yemen war and torture in Bahrain. He faces up to 15 years. He was sentenced in absentia following an unfair trial to two years in prison for giving media interviews on 10 July. Rajab has not been allowed to speak to his family since 15 July. Rajab has been held largely in solitary confinement in the first nine months of his detention. This led to his health deteriorating in April, and he is currently recovering in the Ministry of Interior clinic.

Despite British Embassy representatives regularly attending Rajab’s trials, the 10 July sentence, which clearly violated his freedom of expression, went unremarked on for over two weeks. On 26 July, the FCO stated in response to a parliamentary question: “We note the two year sentence given to him and understand there are further steps in the judicial process, including the right of appeal.”

The letter, signed by 17 rights groups says: “It is appalling that while the FCO recognises the brave work of human rights defenders worldwide, it has turned a blind eye to the human rights abuses in Bahrain, including the reprisals against Mr. Rajab.” They raise the FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy Report, published last month, which applauds the work of human rights defenders globally and state that silence on Rajab’s case contradicts policies to support human rights defenders.

The FCO’s response evaded providing an opinion on Rajab’s sentence and compares unfavourably with its response to a previous sentence Rajab received in 2012 on similar charges related to his expression. At that time, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt stated he was “very concerned” at the sentencing of Mr. Rajab on charges related to his free expression, and added, “I have made it clear to the Bahraini authorities that the human and civil rights of peaceful opposition figures must be respected.” Burt was reshuffled out of the Foreign Office in 2013, but reappointed Middle East Minister following the June election.

The rights groups told the Foreign Secretary today: “British silence on this case contradicts FCO support for human rights defenders internationally and the FCO’s own past record on Mr. Rajab’s case. We urge you to overturn this policy of silence and support Nabeel Rajab and all human rights defenders in Bahrain … by condemning his sentence and calling on the Government of Bahrain for his immediate and unconditional release and the dropping of all pending charges against him.”

While the UK was initially silent on Rajab’s sentence, key allies of Bahrain including the United States and the European Union as well as Germany and Norway all called for Rajab’s release shortly after the ruling. The US, EU and Norway called for Rajab’s release, and Germany deplored his sentence. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office called for his unconditional release.

“The FCO’s weak language on Nabeel Rajab’s case falls in line with the UK’s overall disappointing position on free expression in Bahrain and more widely in the Gulf. Boris Johnson should call for Rajab’s immediate release and take broader steps to ensure that human rights – not just arms sales – are a priority in the UK’s relations with Bahrain and the other Gulf states”, said Rebecca Vincent, UK Bureau Director for Reporters Without Borders.

“Instead of working with civil society and human rights defenders to address systemic problems and reform in Bahrain, as it has previously committed to, the government of Bahrain continues to persecute human rights defenders like Nabeel Rajab simply for exercising their right and duty to promote and protect human rights,” said Andrew Anderson, Executive Director of Front Line Defenders.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “Boris Johnson should be ashamed of his isolated policy, which is at total odds with the foreign policy of all Bahrain western allies and partners. True partners should speak out to their allies when they cross the line. The Bahraini government’s abuses don’t seem to matter to Boris Johnson’s Foreign Office, which only appears to be vocal against repression when it’s by governments that don’t host the Royal Navy or trade with the UK.”

The letter was signed by Article 19, English PEN, FIDH, Front Line Defenders, Index on Censorship, the Jimmy Wales Foundation, PEN International, Reporters Without Borders and World Organisation Against Torture, alongside the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, Gulf Centre for Human Rights and European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights. The letter was also signed by Sue Willman, Director of Deighton Pierce Glynn, Julie Ward MEP and Tom Brake MP.

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales is also separately seeking an urgent meeting with the Foreign Secretary to raise concerns over the treatment of human rights defenders in Bahrain and about the breaches of freedom of expression and fair trial and due process in Nabeel Rajab’s case.

“The trial in absence and subsequent imprisonment of Nabeel Rajab was in flagrant breach of his rights to a fair trial process. The criminalisation of Nabeel Rajeb – for sharing an opinion – is contrary to international rights and protections of freedom of expression. Whilst Mr. Rajab’s health continues to deteriorate, due his treatment in prison, this case stands as a sad indictment of Bahrain’s attitude to citizens who voice criticism. It is not too late for proper due process to be applied in this case; this would result in Mr. Rajab’s immediate release,” said Kirsty Brimelow QC, Chairperson of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales.

Read the letter in PDF

4 July 2017 (Updated)– The whereabouts of Ebtisam Al-Sayegh, 48, is unknown after security forces arrested the human rights defender in a midnight raid on her home last night. This comes a month after Al-Sayegh was arrested, tortured and sexual abused on 23 May by the National Security Agency (NSA). Her family believe that last night’s arrest was conducted by the NSA, an institution whose director is Sandhurst graduate Sheikh Talal Al Khalifa.

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) condemns Ebtisam Al-Sayegh’s arrest and call for her immediate and an independent investigation into her arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in July and torture and sexual abuse in May.

Sources told BIRD that two detainees saw Ebtisam Al-Sayegh looking “miserable” and “beaten” in the Isa Town Women’s Prison in the early hours this morning. Inmates at the prison were unusually barred from leaving their cells for breakfast this morning, and it is believed that this was done to prevent them from seeing Al-Sayegh. Inmates were locked in their cells until 10:30 AM.

Forces arrested woman human rights defender Ebtisam Al-Sayegh in a midnight raid on her home. She is believed to be detained by the National Security Agency, and is at high risk of torture. Al-Sayegh was tortured at the NSA building in Muharraq in May. The NSA is the cite of many recent torture allegations and is headed by Sheikh Talal Al Khalifa, a Bahraini royal and Sandhurst graduate.

Police surrounded her home in five civilian cars and a minibus at 11:45 PM (GMT+3). Masked, civilian-clothed officers conducted the arrest. BIRD has spoken to Al-Sayegh’s family, who believe she was arrested by members of the NSA. No arrest warrant was presented. Al-Sayegh was preparing to sleep when the police came. The officers, all masked, had body and head cameras and were armed. They demanded her mobile phones and her CPR card (her national ID card). When the family asked for the purpose of the arrest, the officers gave no information and did not state where they were taking her. Two masked, civilian-clothed female officers cuffed and detained Al-Sayegh.

The family told BIRD they are “100 per cent” sure that the NSA conducted the arrest.

Previous Arrest and Torture

On 26 May 2017, Al-Sayegh was summoned to Muharraq Police Station for questioning: there she was detained and tortured by NSA officers. The summons was in relation to her human rights activities: Al-Sayegh had been documenting the abuses in Duraz, where police killed five protesters and arrested nearly 300 more on 23 May. The UN has called the killings unlawful.

While there, NSA agents tortured and sexually abused Al-Sayegh. In an interview with BIRD, Al-Sayegh told BIRD: “The interrogator said ‘We are not the Criminal Investigation Directorate, we are the Intelligence, and I am called the torturer, my hobby is torture, my profession is to torture. I have the art of torture.’ He feels he is a torturer, and if I scream from now till tomorrow in this building, no one will be able to hear me or save me, not rights groups, not the UN, nothing.”

Al-Sayegh was blindfolded during the interrogation. She told BIRD: “He said ‘Extend your hand, what is this?’ I touched it, it was a sandal. He said, ‘I will use it to hit you over the head if you don’t answer.'”

“There was more than one man. They used their hands. I could hear the sound and heat of a lighter close to me. He was smoking throughout the interrogation and this lighter, in his hand, he kept lighting it. I was thinking, will he burn me? It was very close to me and I could feel its heat. I could hear the electric machine, but they didn’t use it. I heard it close to me.”

Al-Sayegh described to BIRD being sexually abused by the interrogator. She told BIRD: “I said, ‘Don’t touch me! Why do you touch me? Don’t touch me.’ He replied to me, ‘Don’t say to me violation, say to me: interrogation. In interrogations, we can do what we want. We are now in an interrogation. If I hear the word violation—’ and he hit me on the head.”

Amnesty International reported on her torture: “When she arrived [at Muharraq], she was immediately blindfolded, and in the subsequent hours, she was sexually assaulted, beaten all over her body, kicked in the stomach and kept standing for most of the seven hours she was being interrogated.” Read Amnesty International’s statement on Ebtisam Al-Sayegh here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde11/6392/2017/en/

Al-Sayegh was also detained in March on her return from Geneva, where she had participated in the UN Human Rights Council. In June, the UN human rights experts called on Bahrain to “halt its orchestrated crackdown on civil society.”

National Security Agency

In January, the King of Bahrain empowered the NSA with law enforcement powers, reversing one of the only Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) reforms his government had implemented since the 2011 Arab Spring events.

Sheikh Talal bin Mohammad Al Khalifa was appointed Director of the NSA in August 2016. Sheikh Talal, a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, is the son of a former Minister of Interior and brother to Sheikh Fawaz, the ambassador in London.

The NSA has offices in Muharraq Police Station. Human rights groups have recorded a rise in allegations of torture and arbitrary detentions by the NSA since April 2016.

Systematic torture by the NSA in 2011 was recorded by the BICI, which led to the stripping of their powers. In April 2011, businessman Karim Al-Fakhrawi was tortured to death in NSA custody.

16 February 2017 – The European Parliament has voted through a Resolution on Executions in Kuwait and Bahrain condemning the recent executions in these countries. We, the undersigned, welcome the resolution and call on Bahrain to listen to the European Parliament’s calls and halt imminent executions and respect the rights and freedoms of the Bahraini people.

Read the resolution here.

The European Parliament also voted through amendments: amendment 1, calls for a national dialogue in Bahrain, amendment 2 calls on Bahrain’s police to refrain violence and human rights violations, noting the sixth anniversary of the 2011 uprising. Amendment 7 calls for the release of imprisoned human rights defenders Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja abd Khalil Al-Halwachi, and the final amendment passed, amendment 8, highlighted the vulnerability of domestic workers in Kuwait.

Amendments 1 and 2 are available here. Amendments 7 and 8 are available here. The amendments were incorporated into the final text of the resolution (linked above).

The resolution condemns the use of the death penalty, echoing the condemnation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings. It calls on Bahrain to halt the execution of Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Moosa, two torture victims at risk of imminent execution in Bahrain. The resolution urges Bahrain and Kuwait to issue immediate invitations for the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who has been denied entry to Bahrain multiple times since 2011. It further calls for the release of Nabeel Rajab, and an end to excessive use of force and the arbitrary stripping of citizenships. The resolution calls for the EU to adopt stronger human rights initiatives with regards to Bahrain and Kuwait.

Throughout the debate prior to the vote, MEPs also expressed criticisms of the arbitrary deprivation of nationality, continued arbitrary arrest and torture, and the imprisonment of human rights defenders.

Julie Ward MEP said: “Mohammad Raman and Husain Moosa must not be executed and the death penalty must be abolished.” She turned her attention to the case of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab: “Instead of putting Nabeel Rajab through yet another hearing on 21 February, release him.” She called on all countries, in particular the UK, to hold human rights in their foreign policy over arms. Rajab, a leading human rights defender in the Gulf, currently facing up to 17 years in prison for exercising his freedom of expression. His next trial date is 21 February.

This is not the first EUP resolution on Bahrain. In 2016, the European Parliament passed resolutions on the case of Mohammad Ramadan and on Bahrain generally. In 2015, the EUP adopted a resolution on the case of Nabeel Rajab.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “This is a landmark which must be noted. Bahrain must listen to the voices of the international community and halt the executions of Mohammad Ramadan and Husain Moosa, who were tortured and unfairly tried in court.”

Husain Abdulla, Executive Director, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain: “The brutality of the death penalty has been condemned now by the UN, the EU and the European Parliament. Human rights violations do not go unnoticed. All executions in Bahrain must be immediately halted. Rather than persecuting innocents and victims, Bahrain should hold its police force accountable for abuse and torture.”

Pavle Licina, Advocacy Associate, European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights: “By strongly condemning the recent executions in Bahrain and Kuwait, the European Parliament once again stood up for the respect of human rights and dignity and sent a clear message to both EU member states and governments in the Gulf that capital punishment, but above all torture and unfair trials leading up to it, must not be tolerated.”

In January 2017, Bahrain executed three torture victims, Ali Al-Singace, Abbas Al-Samea and Sami Mushaima. Convicted on capital offences following unfair trials, they were unlawfully killed by firing squad. Al-Singace, Al-Samea and Mushaima were all arbitrarily arrested, tortured to confess, and deprived of access to legal council. The courts dismissed the defence’s arguments out of hand, and the torture allegations of the three were not properly investigated. They were sentenced to death in 2015; in January 2017, the highest court of appeal upheld their sentence, and they were executed less than a week later. Neither the condemned nor their families were informed of their impending executions. Kuwait has also recently carried out the executions of seven individuals. The executions were the first in several years in both countries, ending their respective moratoriums. In Bahrain, it was the first execution since 2010.

Signed,

European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain

14 February 2017 – On the anniversary of the 14 February 2011 protest movement, we, the undersigned, are deeply concerned that Bahrain’s human rights situation has now reached unprecedented lows. Bahrain’s precipitously worsening rights record is damaging not just for Bahrain, but for the stability of the entire region. The 34th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, set to begin on 27 February, marks a moment when the international community can likewise express concerns on the continued human rights violations in Bahrain and urge Bahrain to undertake urgent steps toward reform. Bahrain’s 3rd cycle Universal Periodic Review, which will occur in May 2017, provides another opportunity for the international community to raise their concerns concerns. We, the undersigned, strongly encourage international actors to seize these opportunities, and condemn the exacerbated violations of human rights occurring in Bahrain.

Six years ago today began the largest protest movement in Bahrain’s history. Protests driven by calls for the respect of human rights, democratic reforms, and an end to corruption , swelled in size in the face of police brutality. Protesters, centering their demonstrations around the iconic Pearl monument, numbered in the many tens of thousands. Their calls for dignity and democracy were quashed after a month: on 14 March 2011, when Saudi and Emirati forces entered Bahrain and a state of martial law was declared. Hundreds of people were arrested, tortured, and sentenced by military court. Several people died in the custody of the security forces and National Security Agency.

Faced with international pressure, the Government of Bahrain commissioned an independent international panel of human rights experts to investigate and document abuses committed in February–June 2011 and make key recommendations to the government for reforms. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry issued their report, published in November that year, set out 26 recommendations that were accepted by all parties in Bahrain. These recommendations called for accountability, justice for victims, national reconciliation, a moratorium on the death penalty and respect for the freedoms of expression, assembly and association. These recommendations were further echoed by the international community a year later in Bahrain’s second  Universal Periodic Review.

Six years on, the situation has regrettably grown increasingly worse. Ad-hoc violence and human rights violations have now been entrenched into Bahraini law. The National Security Agency, stripped of law enforcement powers after their role in torturing Bahrainis, were regranted powers of arrest and interrogation in January 2017. The Government is currently pursuing a constitutional amendment that opens the door to empower martial courts to try civilians. Arbitrary denaturalization has been established within Bahraini law, and to date approximately 350 people have been stripped of citizenship, most of them through arbitrary administrative orders or following unfair trials. The majority have been rendered stateless.

The Government of Bahrain crossed a new red line on 15 January 2017, when it illegally executed Ali Al-Singace, Abbas Al-Samea and Sami Mushaima. All three of the men suffered torture to coerce false confessions that were used to  convict them in a deeply flawed trial that violated numerous international fair trial standards. The Court of Cassation, Bahrain’s supreme court of appeals, upheld their convictions in early January 2017, and the government  carried out the executions less than a week later. Ali, Abbas and Sami are the first persons executed in Bahrain since 2010, and the first executed for politically-related charges since 1996. Their executions were condemned by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings.

Most leading human rights defenders and political opposition leaders have been targeted with harassment, censorship, arrest or arbitrary imprisonment in relation to their work. Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, faces up to 17 years in prison in multiple cases, all relating to his exercise of his free expression and his work as a human rights defender. Yet other human rights defenders are forced to work quietly or have been banned from travel on multiple occasions, while still others, like Zainab Al-Khawaja, have been forced into exile for their outspoken criticism of human rights violations.

The leader of the Al Wefaq Islamic Society, Sheikh Ali Salman, is serving a 9-year prison sentence, and his party – the largest in Bahrain – was dissolved in 2016. The leaders of other opposition parties are also in prison, including Fadhel Abbas of Al-Wahdawi and Hassan Mushaima of Al-Haq. Ebrahim Sharif, former leader of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad), served four years in prison between 2011 and 2015, and was re-arrested within weeks of his release for making a political speech.

Security forces continue to employ excessive use of force to quell protests, and demonstrators are injured nightly by the use of birdshot pellets and tear gas. The prison population continues to grow in Bahrain, with the Bahrain Center for Human Rights estimating over 3,000 prisoners serving politically-related sentences. Meanwhile, as peaceful leaders have been imprisoned and security forces continue to employ excessive force, increasing violence against the state has also been registered.

There is no accountability in Bahrain. To date, no senior officials have been held accountable for torture, excessive use of force or extrajudicial killings in Bahrain. Senior Bahraini leadership, including the Minister of Interior, who has held his position for 13 years, have never been investigated for command responsibility of the security forces which conducted arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture. The military judge who oversaw the sentencing of hundreds of torture victims, doctors, trade unionists, protesters and political leaders in 2011, Mansour Al-Mansour, was never held to account. Instead, in 2016, he was appointed to a Saudi Coalition military unit which investigates humanitarian law violations in Yemen.

The Government of Bahrain has created institutions which allege to investigate human rights abuses, including the Police Ombudsman, the Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission (PDRC), the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and the National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR). Yet none of these institutions are independent or effective. The Ombudsman and PDRC are tied to the Ministry of Interior, of which they are supposed to be the watchdog. The Special Investigations Unit lacks independence from the Public Prosecution, which is involved in systematically using confessions extracted under torture to prosecute victims, and it is complicit in absolving the state of torture allegations, as in the case of Abbas Al-Samea. The NIHR’s membership is largely drawn from state employees and it has never criticised the government for human rights abuses, and it most recently wrongly declared the January 2017 executions were to international standards. These are the same executions which the UN human rights procedures condemned.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “Bahrain is in the process of establishing a de facto state of martial law. The situation is worse now and more volatile than at any time in the past. Bahrain’s ally, the United Kingdom, no matter its intentions, has used its influential role to help protect the state against demands for rights reform. Bahrain has shown a total disregard for human rights and the dignity of its citizens. The question remains, how deep must this rejection of rights go before the UK criticises Bahrain?”

Husain Abdulla, Executive Director, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain: It is now more crucial than ever for the international community to refocus on Bahrain’s rising crisis. The people of Bahrain have valiantly maintained their peaceful struggle for human rights and democratic values in the face of mounting state repression. Bahrainis need to know that the international community are likewise committed to these aspirations, and that they will not allow short term economic or other interests to trump international human rights values.

We, the undersigned, condemn the Government of Bahrain’s entrenchment of human rights violations. We call on Bahrain to respect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, the right to a fair trial and the protection of all people from torture. We call on the international community to hold Bahrain to account, in particular in the upcoming 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council and Bahrain’s 3rd Universal Period Review cycle.

Signed,

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
European Center for Democracy and Human Rights

]]> https://birdbh.org/2017/02/bahrain-human-rights-crisis-deepened-since-protests-began-six-years-ago-today/feed/ 0 https://birdbh.org/2017/02/ngos-to-bahrain-do-not-allow-military-courts-to-judge-civilians/ https://birdbh.org/2017/02/ngos-to-bahrain-do-not-allow-military-courts-to-judge-civilians/#respond Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:19:04 +0000 https://birdbh.org/?p=5436 Continue reading "NGOs to Bahrain: Do Not Allow Military Courts to Judge Civilians"