Bahrain: Joint Letter to EU Ahead of Meeting With Bahraini Delegation
Re: EU-Bahrain Cooperation Agreement Must Depend on Human Rights Improvements
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Joseph Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission
Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative for Human Rights
Your Excellencies,
In light of the meeting between Bahrain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the European External Action Service currently scheduled to take place in Brussels on 10 february 2021, we are writing to raise concerns about the deterioration of the human rights situation in Bahrain, following a year in which Human Rights Watch reports that the Bahraini government has “escalated repression” against critics.
As the informal EU-Bahrain Human Rights Dialogue originally scheduled for November 2020 has been indefinitely postponed, it is vital that human rights concerns are placed at the center of your conversations with Bahraini officials during this upcoming meeting.
Bahrain’s Crackdown on Political Opposition and Civil Society
Bahrain’s February 2011 Arab Spring uprising was an event which many hoped would herald a new era of democracy in the country. However, since the government’s violent suppression of the protests, promised reforms have failed to materialise. The leaders of the protest movement, some of them now elderly, continue to languish in prison.
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Irish MEP Tabled Questions about the Plight of Political Prisoners in Bahrain
MEP Chris MacManus submitted a written question to the European Commission. His question was submitted to Mr. Joseph Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) welcomes these parliamentary questions and thanks MEP Chris MacManus for bringing attention to the ongoing human rights abuses and the plight of imprisoned human rights defenders and political activists in Bahrain.
MEP MacManus asked:
“1. In the EU’s discussions with the Bahraini Government, will the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy ask Bahrain whether it will agree to a joint EU-Bahraini initiative to review cases of political prisoners sentenced in unfair mass trials, investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and repeal recent decrees punishing those who criticise government policies or call for democratic transformation?
Will he also urge the Bahraini Government to give political prisoners with severe health problems, such as Hassan Mushaima and Abduljalil al-Singace, access to medical treatment?”
On 1 February 2021, High Representative Borell sent back the following written response:
“The EU has systematically raised its concerns related to the right to fair trial, prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detentions and mass trials with Bahraini authorities through regular political contacts, both from Headquarters as well as via the EU Delegation in Riyadh (accredited to Manama). The most recent informal EU-Bahraini Human Rights dialogue held on 7 November 2019 in Brussels offered another opportunity to discuss these topics as well as prison conditions and the access to adequate healthcare by prisoners in Bahrain.
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