Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini human rights organizations thanked the countries that presented fundamental recommendations to "stop the continuous violations and to achieve radical human rights reform in Bahrain." The recommendations were presented during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Bahrain's human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.

On this level, the organizations welcomes the adoption of these recommendations presented during the review discussion session. They further stressed that "imposing a travel ban on human rights defenders and pursuing them is one of the authorities' failures to implement its international commitments."

Moreover, the Bahraini human rights organizations noted that the recommendations presented by "member-states is a reflection of the accumulated rights work in the past time, with the ongoing human rights crisis, and the activation of human rights diplomacy by Bahraini and international human rights organizations. This was through contracting diplomatic mission to inform them on the human rights conditions and convince them of the civil societies' recommendations."

"The official delegations' responses reflect the denial of the Authority of the crisis reality and its evasion of international mechanisms," the organizations noted.

Furthermore, they stressed the importance of recommendations pertinent to the promotion of human rights in Bahrain. They also reiterated the need "to set a binding timetable for the government to implement the previous UN recommendations, to assign a UN Special Rapporteur on Bahrain, allow Special Rapporteurs to visit Bahrain, and to establish a branch for the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights."

Bahrain's human rights organizations suggested "entrusting the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor and follow-up the implementation of recommendations, and present periodic reports to the HRC on the matter."

The signatories to the statement are The European Bahraini Organization for Human Rights, Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Gulf Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders, and Salam for Democracy and Human Rights.

Arabic Version