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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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7 October 2010.

PRESS RELEASE: UK/Bahrain: IHRC report highlighting torture in Bahrain to be launched at House of Lords, 11 October 2010.

The IHRC’s latest report on Bahrain, called ‘Broken Promises: Human Rights, Constitutionalism and Socio-economic Exclusion in Bahrain’, by Omar F. Ahmed, will be launched at a Press Conference at the House of Lords on Monday 11 October, 2010.  

The event, hosted by Lord Avebury and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, will focus on the Report’s confirmation of the Bahraini state’s use of torture against political dissidents.  This is an issue which particularly topical as the country is currently in the midst of a massive crackdown against political opposition and civil society activists in the run up to the elections scheduled to take place on 23 October.

Omar Ahmed, the author of the report, will speak at the launch.  His report is based on research into the situation in Bahrain done during 2009-10, including trips by IHRC observers to monitor politically sensitive trials in the country.  

In the report, Ahmed argues that “the reign of the current ruler, King Hamad al-Khalifa has represented a failure of constitutionalism and a resurgence of monarchical cronyism, institutionalised by state apparatus and enforced through brutal deployment of the security forces.” 

In doing so, Bahrain has been unsuccessful in preventing social-economic exclusion. The report discusses exclusion of the wider general population, in addition to the more specifically targeted institutional discrimination against its Shia majority.

Additionally, the report presents the view that, linked with social exclusion, there is a continuing trend of human rights violations within the country, “carried out by the Government and the country’s state institutions, predominantly its security and intelligence services.”

The abuses that have been emphasised in the report are, firstly, unwarranted restrictions on the freedom of expression, assembly and association. Secondly, using information obtained through human rights groups, the report accuses authorities of arbitrarily detaining opposition figures and human rights activists, and subjecting numerous prisoners to torture.

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development, and a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex, describes the report as “an unparalleled overview of the deteriorating political, economic and human rights conditions in Bahrain, bringing together the escalating trends of government repression, widening inequalities, institutional discrimination and state-sponsored sectarian tensions into a disturbing picture of a country in crisis.”

The Press Conference will take place in Committee Room 3, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW, at 10.45am on Monday 11 October, 2010.  All are welcome to attend.

For more information on the report, please contact the IHRC Press Office on (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 208 904 4222 or (+44)7958 522196, or email: info@ihrc.org.

For information on the launch event, please contact Lord Avebury on 020 7274 4614 or email ericavebury@gmail.com.

 [ENDS]

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See also:

Briefing Note – Bahrain (24 September 2010)

Report of the Trial Monitor in the Ma’ameer and Adary Park Cases, Bahrain, 2010 (8 September 2010)

PRESS RELEASE: BAHRAIN: IHRC refers treatment of activists to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (6 September 2010)

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The Islamic Human Rights Commission is an NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598, Wembley, HA9 7XH, United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222 / Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email: info@ihrc.org / web: www.ihrc.org

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