The news item may be about us, but the story is not.
On Wednesday, authorities in Bahrain revoked entry visas they had earlier issued to two Human Rights Watch staff to attend the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, which starts tomorrow.
The IPU is a global organization of national parliaments whose slogan is, “For democracy. For everyone.” HRW holds “permanent observer” status with the IPU, which grants us access to IPU assemblies. So, denying us entry is technically a violation of IPU statutes.
But the real story here, of course, is not about an international rights group being blocked from attending a conference they are entitled to be at. It’s about what this ban says about mounting repression inside Bahrain.
Human rights abuses in the country are as widespread and serious as they are well-documented.
The government of Bahrain restricts fundamental rights, undermining freedom of expression and freedom of association. They’ve also essentially banned independent media.
Elections in Bahrain are neither free nor fair. Authorities systematically exclude and repress opposition through “political isolation laws” that keep political activists and former opposition party members out of public office and other aspects of public life.
Bahrain’s rulers also lock up critics and human rights defenders and treat them appallingly in detention.
Take Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, for example. A dual Danish-Bahraini citizen, he’s been imprisoned on bogus grounds for more than 11 years. And although Al-Khawaja is suffering serious health problems, Bahrain’s authorities are denying him adequate medical care.
Bahrain’s justice system is simply rotten. People are tortured into giving false confessions and then executed after sham trials. Authorities refuse to hold officials accountable for torture and ill-treatment in detention.
All this is the real story here: Bahrain’s brutal, systematic repression.
Members of parliament from around the world attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly from tomorrow should speak out about the terrible human rights record of the host country.
They should live up to the group’s slogan: “For democracy. For everyone.”