Bahrain Observatory in Sweden: Government is condemned of practice of racial discrimination

 

Delegates of the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory (BHRO) have met with Mr Jan Henningsson and Ms Josefine Hellgren both representatives of the Middle East and North Africa Unit in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the meeting, Sheikh Maytham Al Salman informed the Swedish representatives of the regime’s systematic violations of human rights and religious freedom in Bahrain.

Al Salman also talked about the local and international reports that have all confirmed the Government of Bahrain has demolished 38 mosques during the ‘National Saftey’/state of emergency following the eruption of the 14 February revolution in 2011. The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report considered this act a collective punishment against a certain sect.

However, Al Salman explained to the representatives that the Government of Bahrain is still ignoring the BICI recommendations to rebuild the demolished mosques along with other local and international demands to rebuild all demolished mosques in their original locations and within an announced timeline.

He also outlined that Bahrain has always been the best model in the Gulf for peaceful and cultural coexistence. While on the contrary, the Government has long practiced discrimination and sectarian exclusion. He spoke of the Government’s adoption of a sectarian stoking strategy and harm of social fabric in order to delay democracy.

To date, the Bahraini Government is practicing religious contempt and ethnic hatred against a large section in the society and this strategy resulted in:

1.      targeting residential areas with toxic teargas

2.      arrest and suspension of thousands

3.      over 100 citizens killed

4.      demolishing 38 mosques

Thereof, Bahrain can be condemned for practice of racial discrimination and violations of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Article 7 declares that everyone has the right to equality before the law and to equal justice before the law regardless of race. It calls for everyone to have an effective remedy, enforceable through the courts, for harm suffered through racial discrimination.

Many other reports, including a recent report issued by the American State Department, acknowledged that the Government of Bahrain follows systematic sectarian discrimination against a certain sect of the society.

Al Salman said that the international community knows very well that fulfilling the legitimate demands of the Bahraini people for democratic transition is the way to end all types of sectarian discrimination and achieve sustainable stability in Bahrain.

Bahrain Monitor in Sweden: Government is condemned of practice of racial discrimination