HRW: No Progress on Key Reforms in Bahrain

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Bahrain’s rulers have made no progress on key reform promises, failing to release unjustly imprisoned activists or to hold accountable high-level officials responsible for torture.

At a news conference in Manama, Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW slammed the Bahraini regime after a five-day visit in which the organization  with high-ranking officials and with political prisoners.

“All the talk of national dialogue and reform mean nothing so long as the country’s most prominent human rights and political activists remain unjustly imprisoned while officials responsible for torture and murder remain in their positions,” said Whitson.

“The minimum one should expect after the gross abuses by security forces during the 2011 uprising is recognition at the highest level of the security and defense forces, including the Interior and Defense Ministers, that they bear the responsibility for the failures of their forces – failures they have acknowledged – and will account for them,” she added.

During a the visit, the first allowed to HRW by the government in almost a year, three representatives met with the interior minister, Lt. Gen. Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa; theattorney general, Dr. Ali Fadl al-Buainain;Nawaf Abdulla Hamza, head of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) responsible for investigating police excesses and command responsibility; the chief of public security,Maj. Gen. Tariq Hassan;John Timoney, senior police adviser to the Interior Ministry, and representatives of the Social Development and Human Rights ministries.

Human Rights Watch’s visit was facilitated by the newly established Human Rights Ministry. HRW met with the ministry’s legal affairs director, Mohamed al-Fazi, and urged the ministry to take an active role in addressing the government’s human rights shortcomings and advocating needed reforms.

The organization said that Bahraini authorities had facilitated frank and candid meetings with government officials but that the government has unreasonably restricted its access to Bahrain, denying and ignoring numerous requests for visas over the past two years and refusing entry altogether for one representative.