We learned at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights that the Bahraini Society for Human Rights (BSHR), which is the oldest human rights society in Bahrain established in 2001, had received on this day a letter from the Ministry of Social Development regarding the list of candidates for its next session in 2022/2023.The letter addressed stated that the nomination of its president Abdul-Jalil Yousif and other members, Issa Ebrahim and Mohsin Matar had been excluded under the pretext of their former membership in the National Democratic Action Society “Waad”, which was already dissolved in mid-2017. The Ministry of Social Development, in here, implemented the “Political Isolation Law”.
The application of this law hinders the work of human rights defenders and limits their work space, and thus does not serve the country’s issues, whether locally or internationally. Nedal Al-Salman, President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said in this regard: “The Bahrain Human Rights Society, like other civil society organizations, must be seen as a true partner to the government in relation to the outstanding human rights files, and the application of this law against it in this way is a clear restriction of civil rights”.
It is worth mentioning here that the Bahrain Human Rights Society is a leading non-governmental organization in the field of human rights with more than 100 registered members. We believe that restricting their work will obstruct all civil society organizations and their activities, which will result in a decline in the level of human rights promotion at all levels.
Therefore, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls on the Bahraini authorities to reverse the application of the political isolation law, especially in this manner, which is arbitrary and does confiscate the free and effective practice of human rights work.