Differing opinions

It seems that Formula 1 is going full steam ahead to be in Bahrain in seven weeks from now. Bernie Ecclestone says that everything is fine in Bahrain. The FIA is not making a fuss and the F1 teams are keeping quieter than church mice. However, other very credible international organisations do not agree.

There are two major human rights organisations in the world: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Both are similar in their purpose, but different in their structure. Amnesty International relies on mass membership, while Human Rights Watch is dependent on donations. They agree on a lot of things, although they retain their separate researchers, who are looking for abuses in the world.

Amnesty International published a report on February 13 outlining its feelings about Bahrain. It said that “the Bahraini government remains far from delivering the human rights changes that were recommended by an independent international commission” and called for the release all prisoners “convicted or held solely for leading or peaceful participation in protests and to bring all those responsible for the gross human rights violations committed during the last year to account”.

“The government has made a number of announcements of what it has done to improve the human rights situation, but the fact is that it has still not delivered in the most important areas,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.”Only when we see prisoners of conscience being released and perpetrators, including those who gave orders, being brought to justice will we be able to judge whether this is more than a Public Relations exercise.”

Amnesty International did say that the government has taken some limited positive steps, including the lifting of the state of emergency, the setting up of an independent commission of inquiry made up of five international experts, the release of some detainees, the transfer of all trials from military courts to civilian ones, and the reinstatement of hundreds of workers to their roles.

At the beginning of 2012 the government said that 48 people from the security forces had been investigated for their roles in suppressing protests. So far only eight policemen, five Pakistanis, a Yemeni national and two Bahrainis, are known to have been brought to trial for human rights violations.

Amnesty also reported that allegations of torture are still being reported and more than 1,000 people dismissed from their positions during the unrest have still not been reinstated into their jobs. “Many of those who have been allowed to go back to their jobs have been asked to sign statements that they would not protest again and were put under pressure to give up trade unionism activities,” Amnesty said, “in addition to sometimes being asked to do different jobs and functions from their original ones.”

The organisation says that the security forces have continued to use “excessive force” to deal with demonstrators and that several protesters have died since the end of November as a direct or indirect result of the inappropriate use of tear gas. Amnesty recognizes, however, that the Bahraini authorities have “a responsibility to ensure public safety and maintain law and order, including through the use of force when absolutely necessary, justified and proportionate” but said that this must be done “in accordance with what is permissible under relevant international law and standards”.

Human Rights Watch has just issued its views of Bahrain. The organisation has existed since the 1970s and has always had the policy of “naming and shaming” abusive governments through media coverage and through direct exchanges with policymakers. It will openly lobby for specific actions for other governments to take against human rights offenders, including naming specific individuals for arrest, or for sanctions to be levied against certain countries.

It reports that Bahrain has “routinely convicted hundreds of opposition activists and others of politically motivated charges in unfair trials” and says that the government “should void the convictions in trials before Bahrain’s military and civilian courts that fell far short of international fair trial standards”.

The 94-page report, called “No Justice in Bahrain: Unfair Trials in Military and Civilian Courts” documents serious due process violations in high-profile trials before Bahrain’s special military courts in 2011 – including one trial of 21 prominent political activists and another of 20 doctors and other medical personnel – and in politically motivated trials before ordinary criminal courts since 2010. The abuses included denying defendants the right to counsel and to present a defense, and failure to investigate credible allegations of torture and ill-treatment during interrogation.

“The egregious violations of fair trial rights in political cases do not just reflect the poor practices of individual prosecutors and judges, but serious, systemic problems with Bahrain’s criminal justice system,” the organisation said.

Human Rights Watch called on the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other countries to suspend all military and security-related sales and assistance to Bahrain until the government addresses these problems.

“King Hamad should examine the special military courts he set up by decree before claiming there are no political prisoners in Bahrain,” the organisation said. “In case after case, people were convicted for their political beliefs, for the slogans they chanted, and for joining large peaceful rallies that the Crown Prince had publicly proclaimed were protected by Bahrain’s constitution.”