(Beirut) – The Bahraini government is enforcing its political isolation legislation and a variety of other tactics to prevent activists and former members of opposition parties from occupying public workplaces and other facets of public life, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 38-page report, “You Can’t Call Bahrain a Democracy: Bahrain’s Political Isolation Laws,” documents the use of Bahrain’s 2018 political isolation legislation to prevent conflicting political parties from running for seats in parliament or even to serve on civil society governors. ‘ together. Human Rights Watch found that the government-led marginalization of opposition figures from social, political, civil, and economic life in Bahrain has led to a variety of other human rights violations.
“Bahrain has spent more than a decade cracking down on nonviolent dissent, and the political isolation legislation is an example of the expansion of government repression into new spheres,” said Joey Shea, Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This draconian legislation has ridiculed Bahrain’s upcoming parliamentary ‘elections’, which cannot be free or fair when you make any political opposition necessarily illegal. “
Human Rights Watch interviewed activists, members of civil society, and opposition figures, and reviewed and analyzed court statements, laws, and records.
Bahrain’s judiciary dissolved the country’s two main opposition components, al-Wifaq and Wa’ad, in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Political isolation legislation has brought new punitive consequences by punishing individual members of those teams for life. The law also targets activists and human rights defenders. defenders who were arrested as part of the government’s large-scale crackdown and after the nonviolent pro-democracy and anti-government uprising in 2011. The latest clause of the political isolation legislation, in relation to others who “disrupted” constitutional life in Bahrain, has been interpreted by Bahraini lawyers and civil society as a target for former lawmakers and others who have resigned or boycotted their elected officials in protest against the government’s repressive policies.
In parliamentary elections in November 2018, the first elections in which political isolation legislation was in place, at least 12 former opposition figures were barred from running for Bahrain’s Ministry of Justice. Many others believed they would fall victim to the law and boycotted the elections.
In addition to the cases of others who were prevented from running for office, Human Rights Watch documented three cases of civil society organizations that have struggled to form a board of directors and continue their activities because of the laws in place. They are: the Bahrain Human Rights Society, the Bahrain Women’s Union, an organization of thirteen teams protecting women’s rights in Bahrain, and the Bahrain Society to Resist Normalization, which opposes the normalization of relations with Israel.
Delays in allowing teams to form a council have had devastating consequences. If a new board is not elected and does not show up until the expiration of the previous board’s two-year term, the Department of Labor and Social Development suspends access to the organization’s bank accounts and investments. sources, forcing the deal to halt operations. Vacancies at the forums also allow the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to appoint new members, raising fears that the forums will eventually fill up with government supporters and “become pro-government,” as one activist put it. Human rights observer.
A member of a civil society organization said that “more than 80% of the members cannot be applicants because they belonged to Wa’ad, al-Wifaq or some other organization dissolved by the court. “Bahraini activists fear that the law will ultimately prevent civil society organizations from advancing human rights, as they cannot be considered critical of the authorities.
Bahrain’s government also uses a form of economic sanction opposed to opposition figures by denying them “certificates of intelligent conduct. “The certificate is issued at the discretion of the General Directorate of Crime Detection and Forensic Evidence of the Ministry of Interior and is required for Bahraini citizens and citizens can obtain employment, apply for admission to university or even enroll in a sports or social club. Former prisoners wait months or years to obtain the certificate. Some opposition figures are denied the certificate altogether, affecting their ability for themselves and families.
A Bahraini civil society member told Human Rights Watch: “A friend sought me out to be the school’s principal, but the ministry refused the certificate, so I may not just work. “The owner of the school reported through the ministry that he may simply not settle for me because I am a member of a political society.
The report also documents the continued detention and summons of Bahraini citizens for speech-related offences. A former Bahraini journalist said that because of “the continuous detentions from 2011 to 2017, worry is part of what other people enjoy on a daily basis. “General for other people to self-censor and remain silent before reacting.
The Bahraini government repealed the 2018 political isolation laws, ended the practice of denying certificates of intelligent conduct to punish perceived opponents, and remedied all legal, political and civil rights of all Bahraini citizens. It repaired political societies dissolved in the past, removed all restrictions on opposition figures to run in parliamentary and municipal elections, ended restrictive measures that undermine the grassroots functioning of civil associations, and released those imprisoned solely for their nonviolent political activities.
Other countries, adding close allies of Bahrain such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the states of the European Union, pressure the Bahraini government to end its repression against nonviolent dissent and civil society, and reject the effects of what will be unfair and unfree. Parliamentary elections in November. If they don’t.
“Bahrain’s once-quaint civil society and opposition coalition are being wiped out by legislation codifying government repression,” Shea said.