On 13 July 2020, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 44 under the Item 3 on Interactive dialogue with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
Madam president,
ADHRB would like to start by thanking the working group for their report on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
Before 2011, corruption in Bahrain wasn’t as ingrained as thought of. However, after the 2011 pro-democracy movement came to an end, the Bahraini authorities started crushing all types of political opposition. This suppression included increasing censorship on public newspapers and private independent newspapers and removing organizations that usually monitor different types of corruption. Since then, there has been an increase in the numbers of corruption cases in the private sectors as much as the public sectors.
Even though there have been changes from 2017 till 2019 according to a study conducted by trading economies in scores of corruption. ADHRB believes that one of the main reasons there hasn’t been any big changes is due to the actions of the government to protect the personal interests of the elites within the government as well as protecting and covering corruption and exchange of interests within the ruling family of Bahrain.
Moreover, we would like to ask, what is the working group opinion on reintroducing monitoring organizations and releasing imprisoned human rights defenders and activists as well as integrating opposition groups within the public and private sector?
Thank you
