On 10 March, ADHRB has delivered an oral intervention at the United Nation Human Rights Council session 46 during interactive debate under item 3.
Madam President-
We would like to thank the mandates of the Special Procedures for their work; and raise concerns about poor conditions in Bahraini prisons. as well as ongoing religious discrimination, reprisals, impunity, and police brutality in Bahrain. Just a quick look at the joint communication reports on Bahrain shows ongoing systematic human rights violations in Bahrain and it’s lack of serious or constructive cooperation with the UN mechanism.
In this regard we would like to point to a book titled “Zafarat” published by Bahraini activists’ news agency “Bahrain Alyoum” in which scores of detailed testimonies of victims of torture and Bahraini political prisoners are documented.
One of those victims in this book is the Bahraini political prisoner Shaikh Zuhair Ashoor who was arrested for his opposition to the dictatorship in Bahrain and for charges related to freedom of expression and speech. During his detention and interrogation, he was subject to severe torture and to several human rights violations, and recently, he was subjected to enforced disappearance from 10July 2020 to 17 January 2021 during which he was subjected to various forms of torture and harassment as a form of reprisal for his stances and activism calling for the prisoners’ rights. He is currently held in Jau Prison, where he is serving his life sentence.
This clearly shows the deep rooted practice of torture and culture of impunity at the Bahraini Ministry of Interior led by Minister Rashid bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa, who should be held accountable for these ongoing crimes of human rights violations and sanctioned by using the MaGnitsky Act.
