Bahrain’s human rights record to be reviewed by Universal Periodic Review

GENEVA (26 April 2017) – Bahrain’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Monday, 1 May 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Bahrain is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 1 to 12 May, which also marks the commencement of the third UPR cycle.  Bahrain’s first and second UPR reviews took place in April 2008 and May 2012, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), the use of the death penalty; the right to a fair trial; addressing allegations of torture; human rights training for police; the situation of human rights defenders, including imprisonment and travel bans; ensuring the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association, expression and opinion; protecting media and press freedoms on and off-line; revocation of nationality and expulsions; discrimination and harassment of the Shia population, including measures against opposition societies and leaders; steps to ensure equal rights for women, particularly with regard to passing granting citizenship to her children; addressing cases of violence, abuse and exploitation by migrant workers, and steps to strengthen legal protection for them; and the situation of stateless persons.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Bahrain on 1 May can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/BHSession27.aspx

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 09.00 – 12.30, Monday, 1 May (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles.  During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Bahrain will be headed by Mr. Abdulla Faisal Al Doseri, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Bahrain are: Cuba, Ghana and Japan.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Bahrain will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link:  https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/27session/Bahrain/Pages/default.aspx

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Bahrain at 15.00 on 5 May.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.  The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.    

ENDS

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/upr-main

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