The Ministry of Social Development of the Kingdom of Bahrain termed the report issued by the Human Rights Watch as biased and based on unfounded facts.
The statement said that the Human Right Watch does not understand the rationale behind issuing a report containing paragraphs dealing with the Ministry of Social Development full of accusations while the Ministry officials met with Human Rights Watch representatives and discussed and clarified many issues in transparent manner and co-operated in good faith.
“It was expected that the said organization will continue co-operation and abide by professionalism and transparency while reporting on the issues discussed with the Ministry officials. However, this did not happen, and the Ministry was surprised to see reporting contrary to what it was discussed with the Ministry officials. Moreover, the paragraphs in the report used accusation language that is not compatible with the goals of an organization that seek promotion and respect of human rights such as Human Rights Watch.
“It should be noted that the paragraphs dealing with the Ministry of Social Development are biased, deliberate, deceptive, and premeditated to show that the situation is contrary to reality,” the official statement said.
“The Ministry wishes to point out that the first draft law on nongovernmental associations was drafted with a kind help from ICNL during the years 2006-2008.
“At that time, NGO’s were consulted on the draft law as well as other governmental bodies and their comments were taken into consideration.
“During the past years the draft law went through rigorous process and amendments by external bodies that ended right now in Parliament.
“Since the draft law is in Parliament, it could be challenged there. NGO’s have full right for lobbying to modify the draft law if it deemed to restrict their work or encroach on their mandate. Such practice is used in democracies around the world including the Kingdom of Bahrain.
“It is expected that in the future Human Rights Watch will thoroughly examine any issue at hand in an unbiased way and far from personal accusations before issuing any statement.”