On June 9, 2021, Dietmar Köster, a German politician and Member of the European Parliament, has asked a number of questions to the to the Vice-President of the European Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. One of the questions focused on the human rights situation in Bahrain.
In one of the questions to the European Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr. Köster mentioned the meeting between Bahrain’s Foreign Minister and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) in Brussels at the beginning of February.
“Several non‑governmental organizations requested that during the meeting, some concerns about the human rights situation in the country be raised, especially following a year in which Human Rights Watch reported that the Bahraini Government ‘escalated repression’ against critics. The informal EU-Bahrain Human Rights Dialogue originally scheduled for November 2020 has been indefinitely postponed.”
The MEP then proceeded to ask: Has the informal EU-Bahrain Human Rights Dialogue been scheduled? If so, when? Continuing: “How does the European External Action Service intend to raise the issue of the crackdown on the political opposition and civil society in Bahrain? And How does the VP/HR intend to persuade the country to follow a path of taking concrete measures ensuring justice and human rights?
Bahrain’s record on human rights has been described by Human Rights Watch as “dismal”, and having “deteriorated sharply in the latter half of 2010”.Their subsequent report in 2020 noted that the human rights situation in the country had not improved. The Human Rights Watch report shed light on the freedom of expression; association, and peaceful assembly; death penalty; security forces and prisons; arbitrary citizenship revocations; human rights defenders; migrant workers; women’s rights and gender identity and sexual orientation.
There are also concerns of the Bahraini government’s systematic efforts to diminish the Shia community. According to Human Rights Watch, Bahrain’s personal status law (Law 19/2009), adopted in 2009 and marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance cases, applies only to Sunnis.
