On 30 September, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 51 under item 6, during the General debate. ADHRB demands that Bahrain be held accountable for its failure to implement past UPR recommendations.
With Bahrain’s 4th cycle Universal Periodic Review coming up, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain wishes to remind the council that despite the Bahraini government’s repetitive claims of reform and several attempts to whitewash its image, human rights violations remain rampant in the country.
Almost a decade after our organization raised its first UPR shadow report, we are dismayed to find that the same issues raised then persist to this very day. Political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, such as Hasan Mushaima and AbdulHadi AlKhawaja, are languishing in prison, while facing inhumane treatment and purposeful medical negligence. Activists and journalists are being monitored and targeted for any act or word deemed unacceptable by the government, as not only physical but also virtual spaces fall under the control of restrictive laws. Protestors face legal harassment and imprisonment for peacefully demonstrating against governmental decisions and policies, a basic right guaranteed under international human rights law. In prisons and detention centers, individuals suffer gruesome forms of physical and psychological torture, while their torturers never face any accountability for their crimes.
As state parties prepare to raise recommendations to the Bahraini government during the upcoming UPR, we wish to remind them that past recommendations have fallen on deaf ears, while Bahrainis continue to be deprived of their most basic human rights. The Bahraini government should face accountability for its failure to implement past recommendations, in order to ensure that true reform is achieved in Bahrain.
Thank you.
