(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Two years is a reasonable enough time to reveal the lack of serious intentions in the direction of reforms with violations continuing to take place. Fake reforms are aimed to mislead the international community with cosmetic measures that fail to fall under what is universally expected and international law requirements.
Introduction:
1- Bahrainis have not stopped calling for democracy for more than a decade, and what Bahrain witnessed on the 14thFebruary 2011 was a continuation of a long history of pro-democracy struggle. However, it is an unprecedented pro-democracy popular movement that Bahrain has never witnessed before. The authority confronted this popular movement with a great level of human rights violations, many of which were documented by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), chaired by international law expert Prof. Cherif Mahmoud Bassiouni. The report was publicly announced during a formal ceremony with the presence of the King, the prime minister and the crown prince as well as many state officials on the 23rd November 20111. The report had hoped to end an era of human rights violations and to build an inclusive resolution that deals with crucial problems as well as reforming the structure of the regime that has long practiced exclusion to an inclusive democratic one that integrates all Bahrainis.
2- The human rights violations came in a number of various forms including the killing of protesters through deliberate targeting with firearms or the excessive use of such weapons. Acts of torture, arbitrary mass arrests, restricting freedoms, attacking religious beliefs and holy sites, dismissing thousands of workers and students, depriving the students rights to education, were all main features of the crackdown against the pro-democracy movement. Also it included the incitement of hatred in the state-run media. Such measures formed the official state policy and were the authority’s strategy to deal with its own citizens in order to crush the calls for political reforms in the country and to suppress the opposition.
This all took place without any will to reform whilst the authoritarian nature of the rulers has remained crystal clear as affirmed by Mr. Cherif Bassiouni in his famous speech during the submission in of the BICI report. Mr. Bassiouni stated in his speech on November 23rd, 2011, “In many cases, government security forces resorted to the use of unnecessary and excessive force, and in a manner that sought to terrorize individuals, and to cause unnecessary damage to property”2. He also said,”The extent of this physical and psychological mistreatment is evidence of a deliberate practice, which in some cases was aimed at extracting confessions and statements under duress, while in other cases was intended for the purpose of retribution and punishment”2.
3- Given the absence of real desire for reforms and the fulfilment of the Bahraini peoples’ legitimate aspirations in transferring to a democratic modern state that is based on justice, equality and freedom, one can conclude that the announcement of the BICI report at that time was not a turning point to end human rights violations. Instead, it was a manoeuvre used to escape the international pressure. This can be clearly seen on ground two years on the authority’s promise to implement the BICI recommendations. For instance, ministers who were responsible for the violations have not been held accountable or at least dismissed from office. Ironically, the same Government responsible for the violations remains in office and is assigned to implement the recommendations of the BICI report. Nevertheless, Al-Wefaq took a serious stance after the release of the report commenting, “The implementation of the BICI recommendations requires serious intentions for reforms. The same Government which is responsible for perpetrating the violations cannot be assigned to implement the recommendations.3 Al-Wefaq demands the Government to resign and to form a national partnership government”. This was not accepted by the ruling family. The report will not have genuine impact on the human rights situation in Bahrain unless the citizens see that the authority truly intends to make political reforms. Political responsibility and accountability come at the top of political reforms.
4. Based on the previous points, the crisis in Bahrain is mainly represented in the following:
5. Firstly: the structural problems in the political system of Bahrain and the centralization of all powers in the hand of the king:
All human rights problems, failure of accountability and impunity are because of a structural problem in the political system in Bahrain. This is because the executive and legislative powers, judiciary, security and national wealth are all in the hands of the king and his family. The left-over would then go to loyalists of the ruling family. The vast majority of Bahraini citizens are marginalized and excluded from taking part in the political system. These citizens are the first to be influenced by the regime’s violations resulted from corruption, discrimination and human rights violations. Violations are not being investigated by the government and judiciary. The legislative body is unable to hold the Government to account simply because it does not reflect the real representation of citizens. Therefore it cannot hold the executive bodies to account. The lack of accountability is the main reason for the continuation of the violations.4
6. Secondly: lack of serious intentions to political and human rights reforms:
The rulers’ lack of serious intentions to resolve the political situation in Bahrain has been proven in a number of occasions. Although the regime constantly promotes for its engagement in dialogues with the Bahraini society, it has always failed to fulfil the people’s aspirations. This is because the several dialogues it had launched, since the uprising erupted about three years ago, only aimed to escape international pressure. These dialogues would then end due to the authority’s continued violations and failure to show desire for real reform. Two of these dialogues were announced to the public, one was launched in July 2011 and the second in February 2013. Another two were held behind closed doors in February 2012 and August 2013. However, all four had led to superficial marginal results, like the amendments to the current constitution of 2002 that have set the country further back in some articles and violated standards of the international law in some other articles.
The authority uses dialogue as a cover for its increasing human rights violations. Also it is using the dialogue as an excuse to reject the international community’s measures to monitor the human rights situation in Bahrain by cancelling the visit of the U.N Special Rapporteurs on torture that was planned to take place in May 2013.5
7. In fact, the political situation has been deteriorating ever since. The country started to take more brutal measures against its own people, such as sectarian cleansing by removal in the educational sector as well as in the public sector. This was not the beginning though. These sectarian measures were taken following years of conducting a formal hidden agenda of expulsion. Back in August 2006, a report known as “Bandargate”6 revealed many sectarian practices and plans to change the demography of Bahrain by granting nationality to non-Bahrainis in an organized political naturalization process which contravenes Bahraini law. Moreover, the authority continued to incite sectarian strife, trying to create more divisions between the two Bahraini sects. It worked to entrench wrong practices and drowning the country in debt, creating obstacles to prevent reform.
8. Hereby we take the opportunity to refer to recommendation number 1725 of the BICI report that states the importance of national reconciliation and political reform produced by national reconciliation. Despite the fact that the authority claims to have implemented the BICI recommendations, the Foreign Minister- who is from the ruling family- stated that “Bahrain does not need national reconciliation”7, meaning that it has been decided to reject this recommendation. This statement alone stresses the lack of the will for a political reform.
9- In the shadow of the lack of desire for political reform, the authority has adopted a repressive attitude to face demands for political reforms with more human rights violations. The aim of this aggressive attitude is explained in the BICI report that says the authority’s goal was to crush dissent in an attempt to deter the opposition. However, this has always failed to silence demands for reform. We must highlight here that the ongoing violations are considered a part of state-policy, and not transient events. This conclusion is illustrated by the contribution of the state’s three powers (legislative, judicial and executive) in the continuation of and support of the human rights violations, while attempting to veil them at the same time.
For instance, in the 28th of July 2013, the National Assembly issued recommendations contradictory to human rights in what it called counter-terrorism. This demonstrated an integrated state-policy to eradicate the opposition. Therefore, as long as demands for political reform continue, and as long as the authority lacks desire for reform, this policy will be adopted.8
10- Two days before the 2nd anniversary of the BICI report, on November 21st 2013, a criminal court of the ordinary judiciary removed a defendant from court because he complained that he had been tortured and threatened by a member of the Public Prosecution Office.9 The incident is similar to that what happened in a military court which kicked out a doctor when he complained he was subjected to torture.
Even in the recent cases looked into by the judiciary, defendants and lawyers feel the judiciary lacks standards of fair trial. The judiciary’s situation today does not differ to that of the military courts which issued convictions based on confessions obtained under torture. The only evidence added to these confessions is the secret spies- anonymous even to the court- together with the misuse and extended explanations of the law. Shockingly demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, peaceful assembly, expressing opinions, participating in peaceful political activism and even tweeting on Twitter are all considered crimes that deserve harsh sentences pursuant to the orders of the prime minister to the judges. This illustrated how the judiciary is subordinate to the executive authority.10These orders were quickly published in local newspapers.
This explains the state’s disregard of the conclusion of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The Group clearly stated that Mr. Nabeel Rajab, international human rights defender, is arbitrarily detained in Bahrain for exercising his right to expression. The UN Group called on the Bahraini authority to immediately and unconditionally release Nabeel Rajab, especially that he had already served three quarters of his sentence.11 Moreover, this is accompanied by the restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly by banning protests in the capital Manama and arresting individuals who present protest notification to the Interior Ministry. Many peaceful protesters have also been arrested.
The authorities are also imposing strict control on modern means of communication. The authority remains to practice discrimination in jobs, recruitment and promotions. More shamefully, it dismisses workers on discriminatory bases and attacks religious rituals and holy places of a certain sect in the society. The state and quasi-state media continue to incite hatred and sectarianism. All this makes certain that the human rights situation today is not any different to that before the issuance of the BICI report. Human rights violations are ongoing in Bahrain, and they will continue until there is real implementation of the report’s recommendations.
11- We draw attention here to the continued significant deterioration of the human rights situation in Bahrain. The number of deaths with fire arms among protesters after the issuance of the BICI report is close to that documented in the report. Detainees remain under threat of death due to denial to adequate medical care and treatment which is considered a type of torture, as well as that the number of victims of asphyxia from tear gas has risen dramatically after the issuance of the report. Lengthy sentences have been given out in bigger numbers than that documented in the report.
12- To date, the Bahraini courts are receiving political cases related to the crisis. The courts are still receiving victims of torture and degrading and cruel treatment who declare that they have been subjected to such violations in certain security departments, sometimes by members of the Public Prosecution Office. However, the judiciary has not acted positively to stop this mistreatment. Also, Violations in education, beliefs, work, trade and civil action continue, and sometimes rise to a higher pace.
13- In paragraphs 1131 and 1126, the BICI report details the behavior of the security forces during arrests of citizens. This is summarized in paragraphs 1178 and 1179 which mention that, “The Commission finds that in many cases, the manner in which the arrest was performed involved unnecessary excessive force, accompanied by terror-inspiring behavior on the part of the security forces in addition to unnecessary damage to property.
1179. Furthermore, the very fact that a systematic pattern of behavior existed indicates that this is how these security forces were trained and how they were expected to act. This could not have happened without the knowledge of higher echelons of the command stru