YoussefRabif before the Human Rights Council: criticizing the rulers is not a crimeand not a reason for the sectarian and ethnic discrimination and deprivation ofhealth care in Bahrain

The speech of the International Council Supporting Fair Trial andHuman Rights (ICSFT) in collaboration with the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights inGeneva

Delivered by: Youssef Rabih, president of the Bahrain Forum for HumanRights

June 14, 2016

Mr. President,

The authorities in Bahrain arepersistently targeting citizens based on their political and religious beliefs.The targeting has taken new forms, as sectarian discrimination dominated the processof providing health care, which should be available to all citizens. Securityauthorities in Bahrain's prisons, especially at the Dry Dock Prison and Jaw Prison,have deprived a large number of the political detainees of treatment, which isan internationally guaranteed right for prisoners. In addition, the prisonadministration uses improper and degrading methods, which humiliate the detainees,especially when they are taken to hospitals while bound with shackles andchains.

As for patients with sickle cellanaemia, which many Shiite citizens in Bahrain suffer from, the testimonies ofthe victims have showed the size of sectarian discrimination practiced againstpatients during the state of emergency, in which members of the securityservices controlled the Salmaniya Medical Complex.

Official statistics indicate that 18thousand people in Bahrain suffer from sickle cell disease. Despite thisfrightening number, there is no sufficient special care for the patients, whichdoubles their suffering from this disease.

Criticizing the rulers is not acrime and not a reason for sectarian and ethnic discrimination and for deprivingpatients of health care in Bahrain, which contradicts the internationalresponsibility and violates the principle of medical neutrality and moral andhuman values.