Mr. President,
Mr. Special Rapporteur,
I am making
this statement on behalf of FIDH, OMCT Reporters Without Borders, IFEX,the
Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Gulf Center for Human Rights.
One year ago,
on that day, Nabeel Rajab was arrested from his home, one day before he was due
to participate in the UN Human Rights Council. One year on, Nabeel Rajab
remains in jail; his health is gravely deteriorating, he has been subjected to
inhumane and degrading treatment, denied appropriate health care and he has
spent extensive periods of time in solitary confinement. And still, this
Council remains silent.
Nabeel Rajab is
a leading human rights defender in the Arab world, who is President of the
Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Founding Director of the Gulf Center for Human
Rights, Deputy Secretary General of FIDH and a member of Human Rights Watch’s
Middle East Advisory Committee.
He has been
held illegally pending trial for one year, only for expressing his opinions on
social media, for tweets and retweets he made regarding the war in Yemen and
allegations of torture in Bahraini prisons, in addition to media interviews. He
faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Last year,
human rights experts, including yourself, Mr. Special Rapporteur, called on the
Bahraini government for Nabeel Rajab’s immediate release, and for all charges
against him relating to freedom of expression, to be dropped. A year ago there
was some hope that the international community would support your call and
pressure the Bahraini authorities to set him free. We are still waiting for
this Council to act.
This sad
anniversary comes in the context of unprecedented harassment and violent
pressure directed at all critical and independent voices in the media,
political parties, and trade unions, which are fighting now simply to be
allowed the right of peaceful expression. The numbers of individuals arrested
over charges related to free expression on the Internet and social media websites
have significantly increased. Journalists, human rights defenders, bloggers,
and active members of civil society have been targeted by the government,
including being interrogated, sexually assaulted and tortured and forced to
stop their human rights activities. Foreign members of the media are being
denied entry to the country, whilst Bahraini journalists are being denied
licenses to work for foreign media outlets, like Nazeeha Saeed, an
award-winning Bahrain correspondent for France 24 who was recently found guilty
of reporting without a license. The crackdown directed at the human rights
movement and the persecution of independent, critical voices in Bahrain is not
only a challenge faced by activists like Nabeel Rajab and others. It is a
decisive moment as well for the cohesion and stability of Bahrain. The targets
of the government are currently all those critical and independent voices
standing against social violence, violent extremism, terrorism, and
sectarianism.
Thank you
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