On 26 September, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 54 under item 4 during the General debate. ADHRB demands to end the policy of slow killing of political prisoners in Bahrain.
Mr. President,
I would like to draw the Council’s attention to the horrific and systematic violations perpetrated by the Bahraini government without restraint or accountability. I would like to point out the suffering of hundreds of political prisoners in Bahrain, being forced to undertake the largest hunger strike in the history of Bahrain, demanding an end to the policy of slow murder and putting an end to the agony and hard prison conditions.
One of the prominent political prisoners is Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace, an academic who has been on an empty stomach battle since July 2021, demanding the prison administration return his research papers that were confiscated unjustly. Al-Singace suffered the worst forms of torture when he was arrested in March 2011, a fact documented in the Bassiouni report. The report, which was endorsed by the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa, stated that he was subjected to “verbal abuse and sexual harassment”, and he was also physically beaten with hands and shoes, and forced to lick shoes and wipe them on his face. A man placed a gun in his mouth, and told him, “I wish I could empty it in your head.”
The Bahraini government claims that it improved human rights structure in the country but until this moment it does not allow special rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture, to visit Bahrain and closely assess prison conditions. I call upon this Council to exert pressure on Bahrain to allow UN rapporteurs to visit its prisons.
