The Bahrain Forum for Human Rights comments on the renewed application of political isolation against the former president of the Bahrain Human Rights Society For the second time, the Ministry of Social Development rejected the nomination of the former President of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, Mr. Abdul Jalil Yousef, for membership in the Board of Directors (2024-2025). The BFHR pointed out that the security scrutiny that the Ministry of Social Development resorts to intends to deprive every citizen, to whom the Political Isolation Law applies, the opportunity to engage in civil society institutions and NGOs. This is done by exploiting "Law No. (25) of 2018, amending Article Three of Decree-Law No. (14) of 2002, regarding the exercise of political rights". Moreover, the BFHR stressed that the ministry has not stopped exploiting some legislations that rob the freedom of forming NGOs, such as the NGOs Law, in addition to arbitrarily monitoring and interfering in the management of the associations' affairs, or threatening to use those laws as a means of intimidating the civil society. Furthermore, the BFHR asserted that the authorities have miserably failed in their commitment to the minimum requirements imposed by international law on freedom of association, especially as the law on NGOs is thoroughly incompatible with the standards stated in the international human rights law. |