Al Wefaq: Bahrain Encouraging Int’l Criticism of Its Human Rights Situation

Hadi Almusawi, director of Freedoms and Human Rights in Al Wefaq National, said the Bahraini regime needs to receive international criticism for violating human rights and its failure in implementing the pledges to end rights violations and hold perpetrators to account.
“Bahrain desperately wants to establish an Arabian human rights court without consideration of international standards to establish such courts like the European, American and African regional courts,” he said.

“This is a runaway from lawsuits that could be filed at regional courts for human rights,” Almusawi added.

He said the Authorities in Bahrain have established a number of human rights institutions that focused on refuting allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by security apparatuses in the country attempting to escape the international transparent observation.

Bahraini civil society members have arrived in Geneva on Monday to attend the Human Rights Council’s 27th session. The delegation will also be organizing and participating in side events about the human rights situation in Bahrain. The delegation, made up of the Bahrain Observatory for Human Rights and a number of organizations based abroad, will be meeting with UN officials, diplomatic missions and organizations following the Bahraini situation.

Islamic Society, also a member of the delegation to Geneva affirmed what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, mentioned about the protection of victims and human rights defenders. The High Commissioner also highlighted that “freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly are rights that enable people to share ideas, form new thinking, and join together with others to claim their rights”.

“To restrict them undermines progress. We must acknowledge the value of civic contribution, build the capacity of marginalised voices, ensure a place at the table for civil society actors, and safeguard their activities – including the activities of those who cooperate with this Council, its Special Procedures and Commissions of Inquiry. I take this opportunity to echo the Secretary-General’s condemnation of acts of reprisal against individuals by reason of their engagement with the United Nations”.

The HRC’s 27th session takes place as Bahrain keeps political and human rights activists behind bars, some serving lengthy sentences as a reprisal for their activism and criticism of the Bahraini Authority.