LEADING international rights groups have repeatedly failed to provide balanced coverage of the situation in Bahrain, continuing, instead, to present a blinkered view of events, according to the country’s main rights watchdog.
However, the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) said it was not surprised by the biased statements made, and reports published, by groups such as Amnesty International or even top officials such as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Al Hussein.
The NIHR has extensively documented cases of alleged violations since 2011.
“We issue a monthly report detailing complaints of alleged violations received and steps taken to address them,” said NIHR acting secretary-general Dr Khalifa Al Fadhel.
“To ensure all trials are fair, our staff also attended court hearings involving key personalities often mentioned in the reports of international rights groups.
“The NIHR has all the raw information and is more than happy to share them with these international groups, who, however, unfortunately don’t contact us and rely on other inputs.”
Besides, the institution has helped resolve many complaints through mediation between the parties concerned.
“We have issued annual reports in the past that have been critical, highlighting our transparent approach.
“Despite doing all this, we feel sorry to see biased human rights reports about Bahrain being used by individual stakeholders to attain political ends.”
The official said the NIHR doors, in Seef District, were always open to local and foreign organisation seeking human rights information about the nation.
“We are even happy to clarify any issues with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and urge them to seriously consider our views.”
Dr Al Fadhel said officials of the NIHR regularly met representatives of international rights groups abroad, including in Geneva, but said their views were never included in all the one-sided reports released relating to Bahrain. “We are open to suggestions and criticism at all times,” he added.
The GDN reported last week that Bahrain’s permanent representative to the UN Dr Youssef Abdulkarim Bucheeri slammed statements made by Mr Al Hussein, describing allegations made in his opening remarks at the 36th Human Rights Council Session “baseless” and “utterly untrue”.
An NIHR delegation is travelling this week to Geneva to take part in the session.
The official government delegation is headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Abdulla Al Doseri, who will be speaking on Thursday.
The session is also set to discuss the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which Bahrain underwent on May 1 along with other countries including Algeria, Ecuador, Finland, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Tunisia, and the UK.
A total of 175 recommendations were made for Bahrain by different member states during the 27th session of the UPR Working Group in May.
The country’s human rights record was previously scrutinised in 2008 and 2012, which is a regular examination of human rights in the UN’s 193 member states.
sandy@gdn.com.bh
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