The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain expresses its dissatisfaction with the report issued by the US State Department on human rights in Bahrain. The report lacks objectivity and impartiality, and overlooks Bahrain’s progress in maintaining and promoting human rights issues, especially in the context of the historical and multi-faceted relations that combine the two countries.
“The report failed to shed light on the key steps taken by the Kingdom towards strengthening the fundamentals and gains of human rights, which the Kingdom diligently worked to preserve. It has detracted the independence of the judiciary in Bahrain, disregarding a number of facts and figures as reported by the monitoring unit tasked with the implementation of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) in its latest quarterly report issued in November 2012,” the Ministry in a statement said.
The US State Department’s report contradicted the BICI’s report, and has not addressed accomplishments made since then in various reform tracks affecting the security sector, including measures of arrest and detention conditions. This is in addition to what is guaranteed by the Constitution as well as the Bahraini law on human rights, freedom of expression and assembly.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to point out that the report did not take into account official governmental information submitted as per the US Embassy’s request prior to embarking on the preparation of the above-mentioned report, rendering the report as not being credible and pointless.”