On 24 March, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 52 under item 6 during the Universal Review Periodic of Bahrain. The executive director of ADHRB Husain Abdulla Said in his intervention: Hamad bin Isa Alkhalifa must be held accountable Bahrain’s Human Rights Violations.
Mr. President,
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism was established so that legitimate states and governments could review their policies towards their people in order to to develop their internal policies and improve human rights conditions.
However, for the Bahraini delegation and government the opposite is happening. When reading the government’s official report submitted to the Council, a false impression is given of a country where human rights are respected, the rule of law prevails, and free and fair elections are held. The daily reality on the ground in Bahrain is typical of a dictatorship and the domination of one tribe over all aspects of the state, where prisons are filled with patriotic people who dared to use free speech and who have spent more than 12 years in prison because they demanded the establishment of democracy and the rule of law.
At the forefront of national leaders and human rights activists who are unjustly suffering in Bahrain’s prisons are:
Mr. Hasan Mushaima
Mr. Abdul Wahab Hussein
Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace
Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Sheikh Muhammad Habib Al-Miqdad
Sheikh Abduljalil Al-Miqdad
Sheikh Ali Salman
Sheikh Al-Mukhadr
There are many more activists locked away in Bahrain’s prisons and it is worth noting, that they advocated for most of these recommendations that the government delegation claims to have implemented or accepted.
My attention has been drawn to the Bahraini government’s claim that no one is above the law, not even ministers and government officials.
My questions to them are:
When will you arrest those who
- Ordered the arrest of these national leaders
- Ordered their torture
- Ordered their imprisonment in Bahrain for life
- Ordered the denial of medical treatment against them
- Systematically violated their human rights
- Institutionalized sectarianism and political naturalization in the country
- Collaborated with the Israeli occupier
- Ordered the execution of young men whose confessions were extracted under torture
- Ordered the demolition and desecration of Islamic holy sites
- Ordered foreign forces to enter the country and attack defenseless citizens
- Ordered the violation of the sanctity of women and the violation of their honor in prison
- Ordered the suppression of freedom of expression and the imprisonment of anyone who disagreed with the ruling family
- Revoked citizens’ nationalities
- Promoted corruption, favoritism, and a policy of seizing public lands and converting them into private property
- Promoted the policy of impunity to the point where one of the king’s sons personally tortured politicians
- Led one of the most repressive eras in Bahrain’s history
- Turned Bahrain into a large prison where human rights are systematically violated
Thank you Mr. President
