On 8 July, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 47 during Oman’s UPR.
We would like to express our concerns over the ongoing systematic human rights violations in Oman. Oman’s 2nd cycle UPR review concluded in May 2015. However, the government has not addressed many of the concerns raised at that time. Among these unaddressed concerns are restrictions on the rights to free expression, free assembly, and free association, as well as the detentions of human rights defenders, journalists, and other critics. Instead, the Omani government continues to unduly restrict these rights, harass activists, and confiscate books and newspapers critical of the government. Certainly it is very reasonable to question the Omani government’s commitment to the UPR process. Oman restricts the rights to free assembly and association, there are no positive steps we have seen, taken in this regard by the current government as well as regarding Oman’s relation to core universal human rights instruments. Oman has not acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, or ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. These treaties are the legal foundation of the rights of freedom of expression, opinion, peaceful assembly and association.
We would like to end by asking the Omani government on what kind of steps or policy changes they will implement to show their seriousness when it comes to addressing the core issues of human rights violations in Oman.
