(Geneva) – The Minister’s Assistant for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Abdullah bin Faisal bin Jabr Al Dossari, headed the Bahraini Delegation to the 33rd Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), held in the Palais des Nations in Geneva and delivered a national statement under the second provision on the annual report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In his statement, Al-Dossari expressed the sincere desire of the Kingdom of Bahrain to efficiently participate along with the office of the High Commissioner and expressed its readiness to attain fruitful cooperation, citing the previous agreement between the two sides on the Technical Cooperation Programme and Capacity Building as a tangible evidence of Bahrain’s effective participation.
He said despite that only one function was held in the Kingdom of Bahrain in May 2016 and the Kingdom has asked repetitively for holding other functions as agreed between the two parties but it received no positive response and therefore we kindly seek from the High Commissioner to immediately and positively comment on this point.
“The efforts to develop human rights in the kingdom of Bahrain are afoot,” he said, adding that in addition to the numerous local initiatives, the Kingdom of Bahrain has implemented a number of technical cooperation and capacity building programmes with various countries and partners including governmental and non-governmental organizations yielding a positive and motivating outcomes.
Not far from this context, He said the concerns expressed by the High Commissioner at his opening statement about the Kingdom of Bahrain are not well-founded and lack accuracy because each detainee in the Kingdom of Bahrain is detained on clear legal bases and as a result of his violation of the penal laws of the Kingdom and is secured a fair and transparent trial before the courts of the independent judiciary.
“In case of complaint from torture or ill-treatment, The Kingdom of Bahrain has put in place severe accountability mechanisms to deal with any situation, the fact that has reinforced trust among people and as far as Bahrain’s nationality regulations are concerned, they are in conformity with international laws,” the Assistant Minister noted.
With regard to the High Commissioner’s general comments that describe the past decade, the Assistant Minister affirmed that they are no applicable to the Kingdom of Bahrain whose shining historical record in this regard stands as an evidence and it may suffice to cite the many unprecedented reforms which have been introduced since the adoption of the National Action Charter in 2001 that have been recognized and appreciated by the Human Rights Council itself during the last decade.
In the same context, The Minister’s Assistant for Foreign Affairs spotlighted the recent measures the Kingdom of Bahrain has taken despite the many hostile regional and international challenges which were aimed to reinforce human rights such as the enactment of legislations that separate between religious preaching and political activism to reinforce the identity of the one nation.
Despite the escalated levels of deadly terrorism, the Kingdom is still observing laws and order with optimum commitment to the protection of human rights demonstrating to what great extent the local authorities are adhering to self-restraint, he remarked.
In response to the High Commissioner’s remarks with regard to cooperation with the HRC mechanisms, the Assistant Minister said Bahrain is about to present its third report in 2016 on the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights as well it will present its report on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the agreed date.
The Minister’s Assistant for Foreign Affairs brought to the knowledge of the Council that Bahrain is the first country in the world that has presented its UPRs since the beginning and is still committed to this valuable mechanism as it has always been during the past decade.
He said that the Kingdom of Bahrain has replied to all the correspondence it had received in accordance with the special regulations, giving evidence on its positive and constructive participation in all fields.
In conclusion, the Minister’s Assistant for Foreign Affairs stressed anew the full commitment of the Kingdom of Bahrain to all the international conventions and laws relating to Human Rights and emphasized its readiness to cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council.
(Courtesy BNA)
