During the second cycle of UPR in 2012 Bahrain was given 176 recommendations from the UN human Rights Council on a wide variety of issues pertaining to due process of law and human rights.  Of which the government accepted and pledged to implement 158 recommendations. The government also accepted the 26 made by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).

However, despite the superficial and unfounded claims of human rights progress by the government, in real time the government has failed to implement any of the recommendations. On the contrary,   torture and arbitrary detention, lack of free expression and assembly, reprisals against human rights defenders, executions, and constant harassment and crackdown of civil society organizations make up the current human rights climate of the country. Just yesterday two people were sentenced to death under the go to pretense of “terror charge”.

It is in this critical moment that we embark on the upcoming third cycle UPR in May 2017. The UPR is a unique mechanism to hold countries accountable and forge tangible human rights reform, if utilized properly. The UN human rights council cannot conduct business as usual and let another four years go by without any real human rights reform and at the expense of Bahraini people. All relevant stakeholders including member and observer states should carefully evaluate the progress report of the country and frame a specific and time bound recommendations with a follow-up public reporting procedures.  If human rights reform is the agenda of the council, the human rights council should take a more proactive role in recognizing the deteriorating human rights environment in the country and openly denounce UK and other allied countries role in whitewashing the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Bahraini government. We cannot afford to let this session be another missed opportunity.

Five years on, the government of Bahrain has not shown any substantial progress in the field of human rights and democracy. Complete impunity, lack of accountability, and increasingly deteriorating human rights situation remains to be the norm!