Summary:
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For democracy, says the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an organization.
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The Bahraini government cancelled the entry visas for two Human Rights Watch employees to attend the meeting the same week.
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No democracy and a sham parliamentarian is a member of the IPU since, at least on paper, it has a parliament. The IPU describes itself as “the global association of national parliaments.”
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Bahrain once more went through the rituals of an election in November 2022.
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Over the past ten years, about 15,000 people are thought to have been detained due to their political beliefs; at least 1,400 of them are currently incarcerated.
For democracy, says the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an organization. Everyone just completed its world summit in a nation with a dummy parliament and no pretence of democracy.
Since Bahrain had already hosted the inaugural Formula One race, hosting the IPU assembly gave them another opportunity to clean up their image.
The Bahraini government cancelled the entry visas for two Human Rights Watch employees to attend the meeting the same week.
Bahrain increasingly closed down rather than widening up to host the event.
No democracy and a sham parliament
Bahrain is a member of the IPU since, at least on paper, it has a parliament, and the IPU describes itself as “the global association of national parliaments.” But neither is its parliament powerful nor representational. Bahrain is an absolute monarchy.
All facets of governance report to the king. The prime minister and cabinet are subject to his authority rather than that of the legislature, and he appoints and dismisses them. The first of the country’s two prime ministers, who served for more than 50 years, was a prominent member of the royal family, as were numerous cabinet ministers.
The king chooses all judges and members of the upper house of parliament. Although the lower house of parliament is elected, every effort is made to keep out potential critics of the ruling party.
Political parties are prohibited, but “political societies,” informal associations with some of the same responsibilities, are accepted. They must register and apply for authorization before working; this authorization may be rejected or cancelled.
The government has shut down most opposition political organisations in recent years, and its most prominent leaders have been detained and imprisoned. Election participation is prohibited for all dissolved organization members and ex-prisoners. Voting districts are deliberately gerrymandered to prevent the opposition from winning a majority, just in case fresh prospective opposition candidates do happen to arise.
Bahrain once more went through the rituals of an election in November 2022. To ensure that any boycott attempts wouldn’t affect turnout, many eligible voters were removed from the electoral roll as retribution for not voting in prior elections. The election resulted in a legislative body incapable of balancing monarchical power, as was intended.
No room for disagreement
A royal order known as the “political isolation statute” was made in 2018. It prohibited former members of disbanded opposition parties from running for office. Additionally, it allowed the government to choose the board members of civil society organizations, restricting their ability to function. It has also been used to harass and prosecute activists, including by denying citizenship to them and their families.
Al-Wasat, Bahrain’s final independent newspaper, was shut down in 2017. No independent media outlets are currently permitted to exist. The government owns all national broadcast media outlets, while supporters of the government control significant commercial publications.
Self-censorship is encouraged by vaguely written press rules that entail severe penalties, including lengthy prison terms, for insulting the king, disparaging Islam, or endangering national security. Numerous people, including bloggers, journalists, and other social media users, have been arrested, imprisoned, and found guilty.
Bahrain has become a prison state as a result of this. Over the past ten years, about 15,000 people are thought to have been detained due to their political beliefs; at least 1,400 of them are currently incarcerated. The majority of convictions have been based on confessions gained under torture. It is horrifying that 51 people have received death sentences.
An opportunity for advocacy
Civil society concentrated its advocacy on parliamentary delegations from democratic governments due to the IPU’s apparent lack of interest in the human rights records of host states.
Before the assembly, two dozen civil society organizations issued a joint statement addressed to parliamentarians who would be present, urging them to express their concerns in public regarding Bahrain’s lack of political freedoms, including violations of parliamentarians’ rights, and to make sure their attendance wouldn’t be used to legitimize the authoritarian regime.
Parliamentary delegations from several nations, including Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands, strongly reiterated the demands of civil society for the release of political prisoners.
A failure of the Bahraini administration’s image-laundering strategy, according to the director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, the event was “a PR disaster for the Bahraini regime.”
But, the Bahraini government’s answer was anything but positive. They continued to reject the evidence of detention and torture while reminding foreign lawmakers not to meddle in Bahrain’s internal affairs.
To compel the Bahraini administration to release its thousands of political prisoners and open up places for the opposition, sustained international pressure is required. High-level image-laundering incidents won’t help the nation’s well-deserved bad reputation; only that will.
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