{"id":29906,"date":"2021-02-08T03:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adhrb.org\/?p=23497"},"modified":"2021-02-08T03:00:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:00:02","slug":"bahrain-joint-letter-to-eu-ahead-of-meeting-with-bahraini-delegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/08\/bahrain-joint-letter-to-eu-ahead-of-meeting-with-bahraini-delegation\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain: Joint Letter to EU Ahead of Meeting With Bahraini Delegation\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re: EU-Bahrain Cooperation Agreement Must Depend on Human Rights Improvements<\/em><\/p>\n

Find PDF<\/a> version<\/p>\n

Joseph Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy \/ Vice-President of the European Commission<\/p>\n

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Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative for Human Rights<\/p>\n

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Your Excellencies,<\/p>\n

In light of the meeting between Bahrain\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the European External Action Service currently scheduled to take place in Brussels on 10 february 2021, we are writing to raise concerns about the deterioration of the human rights situation in Bahrain, following a year in which Human Rights Watch reports<\/a> that the Bahraini government has \u201cescalated repression\u201d against critics.<\/p>\n

As the informal EU-Bahrain Human Rights Dialogue originally scheduled for November 2020 has been indefinitely postponed, it is vital that human rights concerns are placed at the center of your conversations with Bahraini officials during this upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n

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Bahrain<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s Crackdown on Political Opposition and Civil Society<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahrain\u2019s February 2011 Arab Spring uprising was an event which many hoped would herald a new era of democracy in the country. However, since the government\u2019s violent suppression<\/a> of the protests, promised reforms have failed to materialise. The leaders of the protest movement, some of them now elderly, continue to languish in prison.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, authorities have outlawed<\/a> all independent media and dissolved all political opposition parties. Among the most prominent prisoners currently incarcerated are high-profile political opposition leaders, activists, bloggers and human rights defenders sentenced<\/a> to life imprisonment for their roles in the 2011 pro-democracy protests. These include Hassan Mushaima, Abduljalil AlSingace, Abdulhadi AlKhawaja, Sheikh Mohammed Habib AlMuqdad and Abdulwahab Husain<\/strong>. In 2018, the leader of Bahrain\u2019s largest opposition bloc, Sheikh Ali Salman<\/strong>, was sentenced<\/a> to life in prison following trials on speech charges and spurious accusations of espionage.<\/p>\n

Over the last four years, political activists have borne the full brunt of political repression in Bahrain, facing arbitrary arrest and lengthy prison terms, and in some cases torture, for opposing the government. Hundreds have been arbitrarily stripped<\/a> of citizenship, while activists and journalists who continue their work from exile risk reprisals<\/a> against family members who remain in the country.<\/p>\n

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least six<\/a> journalists are currently imprisoned<\/a> for their work in Bahrain, while the country has fallen to a lamentable 169\/180 on the Reporters Without Borders 2020 World Press Freedom Index<\/a>. Bahrain scored<\/a> a paltry 1\/40 for political rights in Freedom House\u2019s Freedom in the World 2020 report.<\/p>\n

In addition, Bahrain\u2019s government has increasingly turned to<\/a> repressive cyber crime legislation to further restrict civic space, with prominent defence lawyers<\/a>, opposition leaders<\/a> and human rights defenders<\/a> prosecuted over their social media activity since 2018. As Amnesty International has reported<\/a>, Bahrain\u2019s authorities have used the COVID-19\u00a0 pandemic as a pretext \u201cto further crush freedom of expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Medical Negligence and Mistreatment in Jau Prison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahrain\u2019s prisons remain<\/a> overcrowded and unsanitary, and human rights groups have called<\/a> on the government to release those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression in light of the threat posed by COVID-19. Prisoners are frequently<\/a> subjected to humiliating treatment and denied adequate medical care, in violation of Bahrain\u2019s international human rights obligations. These include Hassan Mushaima <\/strong>and Dr Abduljalil AlSingace<\/strong>, who suffer from a range of chronic medical conditions, as well as human rights activists Ali AlHajee<\/strong> and Naji Fateel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Other prominent prisoners include two European-Bahraini dual citizens, the Danish-Bahraini<\/strong> Abdulhadi AlKhawaja<\/strong> and the Swedish-Bahraini<\/strong> Sheikh Mohammed Habib AlMuqdad<\/strong>, both of whom are considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, having been prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment including denial of medical care.<\/p>\n

In April 2011, security forces violently arrested Al-Khawaja<\/strong> and broke his jaw, leading to surgery for four broken bones in his face. Security officers tortured Al-Khawaja directly after his major jaw surgery, while blindfolded and restrained to a military hospital bed, which forced the doctor to ask the security officers to stop as it would undo the surgical work. Almost ten years later he still suffers<\/a> from chronic pain and requires additional surgery to remove the metal plates and screws that were used to reattach his jaw.<\/p>\n

AlMuqdad<\/strong>, who was tortured by methods including severe beating and electrocution, suffers from multiple health problems, including a hernia likely caused by his torture, but is being denied proper health care. As of January 2021, in addition to the need for urgent surgery to repair the hernia, AlMuqdad is in need of heart surgery to unblock his coronary arteries and examination by a urologist to diagnose a prostate problem. The prison administration continues to delay the surgeries and specialist appointments, blaming the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

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Death Penalty and Arbitrary Killings<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2017, Bahrain abandoned a de facto<\/em> moratorium on the death penalty and has since conducted six executions, five of which were condemned as arbitrary by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Agnes Callamard, in 2017<\/a> and 2019<\/a> respectively. According to recent research by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and Reprieve, 26 death row inmates currently face imminent execution in the country, nearly half of whom were convicted on the basis of confessions allegedly extracted under torture in cases related to political unrest.<\/p>\n

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These include Mohammed Ramadhan<\/strong> and Husain Moosa<\/strong>, whose death sentences were upheld<\/a> in July 2020 despite credible evidence that both men were convicted on the basis of confessions obtained under torture. Independent experts at the International Committee for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims concluded that investigations<\/a> by Bahrain\u2019s human rights oversight bodies into the torture of the two men \u201cfail[ed] to meet the minimum professional standards and the minimum international legal standards\u201d, while the Bar Human Rights Council of England and Wales warned<\/a> that \u201cupholding the convictions would be wholly inconsistent with Bahrain\u2019s international obligations\u201d. Both men are at risk of imminent execution. Three UN human rights experts warned<\/a> on 12 February 2020 that carrying out these death sentences would constitute an arbitrary killing.<\/p>\n

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Our Requests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bahraini authorities have engaged in widespread violations of human rights enshrined in both Bahrain\u2019s national legal system as well as in multiple international human rights treaties to which Bahrain is a state party.<\/p>\n

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Furthermore, a prevailing culture of impunity has allowed suspected perpetrators of serious human rights violations to avoid accountability. In light of the continued deterioration of the human rights situation in Bahrain, we therefore ask that during the meeting the EEAS:<\/p>\n

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