Bahrain Special: Human Rights Violations Since the BICI Report (Bahrain Centre for Human Rights)

Last week the Bahraini regime, led by King Hamad, announced that it had implemented "significant and broad" reforms since the November report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights has challenged this declaration while depicting the continuing issues of rights and justice in the kingdom. The "Post-BICI Report" is dedicated the BCHR's founder, Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (pictured in inset), who was imprisoned for life by the regime last year and is currently on the 47th day of a hunger strike.

The Recommendations of the report:

Recommendations for the Bahraini Government

To immediately end ongoing human rights violations

a. To immediately end the violent repression of protests; to completely cease use of birdshot and excessive tear gas; and to recognise the fundamental right to associate.
b. Unconditionally release political prisoners and end torture, arbitrary detention, and incommunicado detention;
c. Take measures to ensure the reinstatement of all remaining workers and employees who were dismissed from their workplace for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, political opinion, and assembly;
d. To ensure that sacked workers are reinstated in the same positions, with the same contracts, that they are compensated and to discontinue the signing of pledges;
e. To end the harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, political activists and journalists
f. Allow access by local and international journalists to activists, protest sites, hospitals and other public institutions.
g. To immediately withdraw all factions of the army from Salmaniya Medical Complex, and allow people access to medical care.

Accountability & ending the culture of impunity

h. To put on trial all those accused of killing and wounding protesters and torturing detainees as well as those who ordered and authorized such acts.
i. To put on trial those ministers responsible for crimes against humanity and the head of state who has complete control of all government operations, and would have authorized, and condoned human rights abuses. Such widespread and systematic policies may amount to crimes against humanity and that command responsibility reaches at least ministerial level and head of state. It would be difficult to reject the prima facie case here. Not only are implicated ministers, such as the Minister of Interior, the head of the National Security Apparatus, head of BDF, the IAA, the Social Development Minister, the labor Minister and the Labor Ministry directly responsible for one or more of the violations listed, they should be put on trial for ordering, or becoming accessory to such crimes.
j. To end the impunity of those in government and those in power. The failure to seriously investigate or to convict a single official or security officer for the grave abuses that have taken place cannot continue.
k. Dissolve the National Security Apparatus and the Special Security Apparatus and return their jurisdictions to the regular security apparatuses.
l. To sign the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) in order to strengthen legal accountability for torturers.

Redress & reparation for victims

m. To grant reparations to the families of those killed or left disabled by serious injuries.
n. To initiate a rehabilitation center for victims of torture

To rebuild a new independent justice system

o. Create a judicial system that operates independently, both financially and administratively, and is impartial and transparent in its proceedings; to make sure it is never again used as a political tool of the state
p. To prosecute the Minister of Justice for perverting the course of justice by violating due process.
q. To put the former head of the infamous National Security Apparatus, current advisor to King, on trial for crimes of torture committed by his apparatus.
r. To ensure the independence of judges in civilian courts in all hearings. Those who have been arrested and convicted in a military court should be immediately released and have their convictions expunged.
s. To bring laws into conformity with international standards of freedom of expression and association.
t. To address and reform the Penal Code and laws that are not currently up to international standards.
u. To address the Law against Terrorism which has been heavily criticized by international human rights organizations as being too vague and ambiguous in its definition of terrorism.
v. Institutionalizing human rights and ending sectarian discrimination
w. The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation based on political opinions that are different than others; and
x. A security apparatus respectful of human rights and subject to independent review with equal opportunity for all and ending the use of foreign mercenaries that serve as an antithesis to community policing.
y. Protect Shiaa places of worship and religious buildings, rebuild destroyed mosques, and end systematic discrimination in political representation, government recruitment, employment, and naturalization policies;
z. To allow independent oversight by an international body at the beginning, such Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH and OHCHR to ensure these changes are implemented.
aa. To institutionalize human rights in order to ensure that these breaches do not happen again.

Addressing the root causes of the problem.

bb. Political reconciliation in the form of democratic transition
cc. To recognize that human rights are best protected in a democratic political system where there is accountability and transparency.
dd. To include in any plans for reconciliation, the 21 opposition leaders who have paid the highest price in terms of freedom in their struggle for democracy.
ee. To draw a road map for democratic transition including a new constitution that represents the will of the people.
ff. Universal and equal suffrage, including in the designation of electoral district

Recommendations for the European Union and US

To end arms deals with the Bahraini regime

a. Because of the likely use of US-origin military equipment by the BDF against protesters marching to the Pearl Roundabout on February 18, 2011 and by Saudi troops who entered Bahrain to crush the movement, the EU and US should cease military sales to Bahrain that could be used to repress the Bahraini people. This was also mentioned in the EU Parliament’s Motion for a Resolution (refer to appendix (C)).
b. There should be an international moratorium on the lethal use of birdshot and tear gas against civilians if not a ban of sales of such weaponry to governments, like the Bahraini government that have fatally used them against their own people.

Surveillance technologies

c. To stop the sale of surveillance technologies to the government of Bahrain from European companies. Export controls should target specific technologies, such as content filters and spyware, which serve the primary purpose of limiting flows of online information or monitoring private digital communications.
d. To hold technologies companies accountable for their corporate social responsibility toward protection of human rights. Involvement in sale of technologies to government with bad human rights records and where reports of ill-use of these technologies should be addressed in the laws of the EU countries and the United States. They should be required to report the to publicly disclose what products and services they provide to countries with extensive internet restrictions.

Protect right to anonymity

e. To enable greater anonymity online for the protection of activists and users in countries where they are facing harsh punishment for online posts. Google said it‟s reconsidering the policy of real name, while Facebook has not shown any sign of modifying this policy.

Challenge restrictive internet laws and practices

f. To provide and enforce greater human rights laws for online users and activists in order to avoid unlawful arrests, detention and imprisonment on the grounds of ambiguous charges.
g. To address online freedom of speech and its international law components and regulations. The laws that are used to restrict their freedom to speech online need to be publicly challenged, as they are filled with ambiguous terms which can make them easily used to hinder net freedom rather than protect it.361 Unfortunately, because the parliament does not to the most part represent the people of Bahrain, and has very little power when it comes to legalization, they cannot be depended on to stop such restrictive laws.

Address internet censorship as a barrier to free trade:

For the European Union and the United States to challenge censorship practices under bilateral trade agreements with Bahrain and present a case against internet censorship before the World Trade Organization, because the potential loss of trade will provide a strong incentive for Bahrain to cut back on their censorship of online content and services.

Issue public statements about the violations in Bahrain:

h. To issue topic specific statements strongly condemning the continuous human rights violations committed by the government of Bahrain, which will then allow for follow up on the specific violations raised within these topics. As with many cases in the past, it was direct public pressure on certain cases that caused the government of Bahrain to respond quickly and address the case. For example in the case of the medics the government went as far as to dropping several charges against the doctors to relieve the international pressure exerted due to that case.

Recommendations for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Criminal Court

a. To send an urgent mission to Bahrain to investigate the deaths of more than 30 people killed since the release of the BICI report on September 30. The risk of further deaths is still high if not increasing. The ICC needs to investigate the evidence presented of crimes against humanity and to bring the perpetrators to justice at the Hague, in the absence of an independent legal system in Bahrain.