BFHR’s Symposium on the International Human Rights Day: Bahrain Systematically Infringes Human Rights 

Watch the symposium in Arabic on YouTube here

On Monday, December 11, 2023, the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights (BFHR) has organized a virtual symposium under the title “International Human Rights Day,” moderated by journalist Hawraa Yassin, who has pointed out that it is ironic that this day coincides with the establishment of the regime that pioneers violating human rights as it continues today to shed blood of the Palestinians amid the silence of Islamic regimes, which in turn violate the basic rights standards and resort to torture and ill-treatment.

Human Rights Officer at the Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Middle East and North Africa, Alaa Qaoud, has pointed out that the Human Rights Council controls the human rights system.  Qaoud has elaborated on the human rights mechanisms adopted by the United Nations to strengthen the human rights situation around the world despite all the failures.

For his part, Hussein Nouh, monitoring officer at the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, has confirmed that the human rights movement is insufficient in light of the major challenges, pointing out that issuing harsh arbitrary sentences is an oppressive tool used by the Bahraini regime to take revenge on human rights activists, as the judiciary - according to the directives of the Ministry of Interior - lacks the most basic standards of justice and deals with citizens as adversaries, taking advantage of the terrorism law.  Noah has displayed a series of incidents occurring in Bahraini courts that prove the systematic violation of human rights in Bahrain, including the case of Sheikh Ali Salman, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment.  Further, he has revealed that the authorities have issued 341 life sentences in political cases related to exercising the right to expression.  He has also examined the violation of the rights of prisoners of conscience, demanding their immediate release and retrial.

Chairman of the Salam Organization for Democracy and Human Rights, Jawad Fairouz, has pointed out that on the 7th anniversary of the issuance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to express one’s opinion, the right to political participation, and the right to hold public office are all still being violated in Bahrain.   Fairouz has stressed that these violations contradict the essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Bahraini constitution, which protects political freedoms adding that the amendment to the exercise of political rights is unfair and arbitrary, recalling the presence of 12 prisoners of conscience on the verge of imminent execution if Bahrain’s king approves the verdicts. He has also regreted that the implementation of UN recommendations is subject to the control of the major powers in the absence of accountability, and this is exactly the same that has taken olace regarding the aggression against Gaza.

In the same context, Chairman of the International Center for Supporting Rights and Freedoms, Ahmed Omar, has confirmed that Bahrain has not cooperated with international human rights mechanisms that have become outdated, for example, they are not compatible with cybercrimes.  He has spoken about the case of prisoner of conscience Muhammad Hassan Al-Raml, which has not receive a serious response for flimsy reasons, and about postponing the visit of the UNHCR delegation indefinitely as Bahrain adopts a method of ignoring, denying and recording victories against its own citizens, calling for the necessity of developing mechanisms for pressing issues.