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Bahrain's Third Cycle Bahrain’s Third Cycle UPR Cycle Third Bahrain’s Bahrain’s Third Cycle UPR A RECORD OF REPRESSION A comprehensive assessment of the Bahraini government’s implementation of its second-cycle United Nations Universal Periodic Review recommendations, with analysis and of Repression A Record recommendations for the third cycle. ADHRB BIRD BCHR www.adhrb.org Bahrain’s Third Cycle UPR A RECORD OF REPRESSION January 2017 ADHRB – BCHR - BIRD ©2017, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). All rights reserved. Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain is a non-profit, 501(c) (3) organization based in Washington, D.C. We seek to foster awareness of and support for democracy and human rights in Bahrain and the Middle East. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy is a London, UK based non-profit organization focusing on advocacy, education and awareness for the calls of democracy and human rights in Bahrain. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, registered with the Bahraini Ministry of Labor and Social Services since July 2002. Despite an order by the authorities in November 2004 to close, the BCHR is still functioning after gaining wide local and international support for its struggle to promote human rights in Bahrain. Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain 1001 Connecticut Ave. Northwest, Suite 205 Washington, DC 20036 202.621.6141 www.adhrb.org Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy www.birdbh.org Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) www.bahrainrights.org Design and layout by Jennifer Love King Assessment of the Recommendations SECTION A Criminal Justice PAGE 10 1. Due Process, Judicial Independence, and Political Prisoners 11 2. Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 24 3. Police Practices and Training 31 4. Accountability 39 5. Arab Court of Human Rights 46 SECTION B Compensation For Victims 47 SECTION C Nationality Regulations and Statelessness 52 SECTION D National Legislation on Education and Disabilities 60 SECTION E Women’s and Children’s Rights 66 1. Gender Equality and Discrimination 67 ASSESSMENT OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS ASSESSMENT 2. Women's Empowerment 76 3. Children's Rights 78 SECTION F Implementation of the BICI 84 SECTION G National Human Rights Institution 90 SECTION H Freedom of Expression, Press, and Media 96 SECTION I Labor Rights and Human Trafficking 107 1. Human Trafficking 107 2. Migrant Workers and Labor 110 SECTION J Treaties and International Human Rights Mechanisms 117 SECTION K National Dialogue 124 SECTION L Social Services and Civil Society Organizations 128 1. Restrictions on Civil Society Organizations and Human Rights Defenders 129 2. Welfare 134 SECTION M Constitution and National Legislation 138 1. Election Reform 139 2. Penal Code 141 3. Convention against Torture 146 4. Death Penalty 147 SECTION N Religious and Cultural Rights 151 1. Rebuild Shia Religious Sites 152 2. Protect Religious and Cultural Rights and Combat Discrimination 156 SECTION O Medical Impartiality and Public Health 181 SECTION P Other Recommendations 186 1. End Violence & Impunity and Release Political Prisoners 186 2. Release Abdulhadi al-Khawaja 187 0/29 2/29 7/29 16/29 3/29 1/29 Fully Perceived Technically Not Implemented Recommendation Not Applicable Implemented Progress Implemented No Perceived Progress Not Accepted No Perceived Progress * The sections of this report are largely based on the divisions of the 176 recommendations made to Bahrain in its UPR Second Cycle review according to the classifications given by the Government of Bahrain in A/HRC/21/6/ Add.1/Rev.1. See the Methodology section for an explanation of the alterations made to the government’s second-cycle categories for the purposes of this comprehensive third-cycle report. FULLY IMPLEMENTED: 0 PERCEIVED PROGRESS: 2 TECHNICALLY IMPLEMENTED: 23 NOT IMPLEMENTED: 136 NOT ACCEPTED: 18 UPR Implementation by Recommendation Fully Implemented 0 Perceived Progress 2 Technically Implemented 23 Not Implemented 133 0+1+1376+10 Not Accepted 18 UPR Implementation by Section Fully Implemented 0 Perceived Progress 2 Technically Implemented 7 Not Implemented 16 Not Accepted 3 0+7+2456+10+3 Not Applicable 1 Fully Perceived Technically Not Implemented Recommendation Not Applicable Implemented Progress Implemented No Perceived Progress Not Accepted No Perceived Progress 4 Bahrain’s Third Cycle UPR : A Record of Repression FULLY IMPLEMENTED: 0 PERCEIVED PROGRESS: 2 TECHNICALLY IMPLEMENTED: 23 NOT IMPLEMENTED: 136 NOT ACCEPTED: 18 Executive Summary Just over a year after government forces violently suppressed the country’s mass pro-democracy protests in 2011, Bahrain entered its second four-year cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights (UPR). On 6 July 2012, member and observer states of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) submitted 176 recommendations to the Bahraini government, addressing a wide range of issues from criminal justice reform to women’s rights. That October, the government partially or fully accepted 158 of these recommendations, pledging to take the requisite steps to bring the country’s practices in line with international human rights standards. Following the government’s failure to implement a narrower set of just 26 recommendations issued by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) in 2011,1 the second UPR cycle represented a moment of reckoning for Bahrain’s rulers: they could either seize this new opportunity to revive the reform and reconciliation process, or demonstrate a renewed commitment to authoritarianism and repression. Four years later, as Bahrain’s second-cycle comes to a close, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) is forced to confirm its midterm assessment2 made halfway through the UPR process in 2014: the government’s second chance has become yet another missed opportunity. Since 2012 – and since the 2011 pro-democracy movement, more broadly – the Bahraini government has only intensified its campaign against civil society and peaceful political opposition, imposing increasingly draconian restrictions on basic freedoms that have stifled progress across the full spectrum of human rights. In this report, ADHRB, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) seek to provide a clear and comprehensive assessment of not only the Bahraini government’s technical implementation of its second-cycle UPR recommendations, but also to assess its larger efforts to resolve the country’s major political and human rights challenges. We have therefore attempted to evaluate the full scope of each issue area in order to gauge the government’s efforts to realize the spirit of the recommendations. Moreover, with Bahrain preparing to enter its third cycle, we have also provided information on key issue areas that were not addressed in 2012, as well as proposed recommendations we hope to see included in the upcoming UPR process. Our report finds that the Bahraini government has still failed to fully implement any of its 176 second- cycle UPR recommendations. Of the 158 recommendations accepted by the government, only two have seen any significant progress toward implementation. ADHRB, BCHR, and BIRD have not perceived any substantive progress for 133 recommendations and assess that 23 others have been merely technically implemented with little to no substantive impact. At the end of its second UPR cycle, then, the Government of Bahrain has proven either unable or unwilling to implement almost any recommendations, including those to reform its criminal justice system, curb the use of torture, or institute sufficient protections for fundamental human rights like free 1 Despite government claims to the contrary, the vast majority of the BICI recommendations remain unimplemented. See Section G of this report and Shattering the Façade: A Report on Bahrain’s Implementation of the Bahrain Independent Commission of inquiry (BICI) Recommendations Four Years On, ADHRB, BCHR, and BIRD, 16 November 2015, http:// www.adhrb.org/2015/11/shattering-the-facade-a-report-on-bahrains-implementation-of-the-bahrain-independent- commission-of-inquiry-bici-four-years-on/ 2 A Follow-Up Report on A Bahrain’s UPR Second Cycle: The Deteriorating Human Rights Situation in Bahrain, ADHRB, 23 April 2014, http://www.adhrb.org/2014/04/a-follow-up-report-on-bahrains-upr-second-cycle-the-deteriorating-human- rights-situation-in-bahrain/ Bahrain’s Third Cycle UPR : A Record of Repression 5 expression, assembly, association, and belief. Rather, Bahraini authorities continue to arbitrarily arrest, disappear, torture, and imprison individuals for exercising these rights. Since 2012, the government has significantly expanded its penal code, counterterror legislation, and cybercrime law to broadly restrict civil society and effectively criminalize all forms of dissent. The government has additionally taken steps to harass, dissolve, and constrain most of Bahrain’s civil, political, and religious organizations. Notably, some important issue areas had seen limited improvement at the halfway point of Bahrain’s second UPR cycle, such as women’s rights and gender equality. Yet today, the government has significantly regressed even here, targeting women human rights defenders for reprisal and issuing problematic new policies such as a male guardianship system for
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