IRCT has jointly signed a letter to call on Member and Observer States of the United Nation's Human Right's Delegates in conjunction with the upcoming 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Bahrain is currently cracking down on its citizens through torture and executions.
IRCT, with among others, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), requests the UN HRC to raise concerns over the serious detoriation of human rights in Bahrain during the next 45th session of the UN HRC.
There has been a dramatic rise in the use of the death penalty in Bahrain since the government abandoned a moratorium in 2017, with at least 12 of the 26 individuals currently on death row at risk of imminent execution. On July 13, 2020, Bahrain’s highest court rejected the final appeal of death row inmates Mohamed Ramadan and Hussein Moosa, despite credible evidence that their convictions were based on forced confessions resulting from torture. In February 2020, three UN experts called on Bahrain to prevent their executions, warning that “admission of evidence obtained under torture into any proceeding violates the rights to due process and fair trial and is prohibited without exception.”
Despite being party to the Convention Against Torture, widespread torture and a culture of impunity still prevail. Despite being party to numerous international treaties and conventions which enshrine the protection of freedom of expression, association, assembly and religion, Bahrain has intensified its longstanding crackdown on civil society and targeted several individuals for exercising these fundamental rights.
A few of the key recommendations and concerns we advise the delegation to address and call on the Government of Bahrain are:
- Release all protesters, activists, journalists, lawyers and other civil society figures detained or convicted solely for having exercised their rights to peaceful assembly, association, expression or religion;
- Ensure independent, thorough, and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment by ensuring that human rights bodies are entirely independent
Read the full letter and recommendations here.