NGO: International Organizations Must Act to End Bahrain’s Political Repression

By Staff, Agencies 

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a prominent rights NGO urged international organizations to use its influence and pressure Al-Khalifa regime in Bahrain to end the targeted and ongoing suppression of political participation.

In a statement on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the dissolution of the National Democratic Action Society [Wa'ad], the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said the Manama regime presses ahead with its crackdown, noting “political participation in Bahrain faces continuous repression.”

The statement confirmed that failure to authorize the establishment of associations and violations of freedom of expression is only part of the Al-Khalifa regime's efforts to “completely suppress human rights,” adding that the Manama regime not only closes political associations, but it also bars their members from participating in elections.

The NGO said Wa'ad, Bahrain’s largest leftist political party, was dissolved due to its participation in the 2011 protests.

It further called on international organizations to use its “influence and pressure on the authorities in Bahrain to end the systematic campaign of repression that they are practicing against political and civil societies, which has continued since the protests began” in 2011.

Meanwhile, Nedal Al-Salman, the acting president of Bahrain Center for Human Rights, called the Bahraini authorities to stop the dissolution of political and civil societies, take genuine steps toward reforms away from slogans, and allow Wa’ad and other dissolved political associations to resume their activities.