By KANWAL TARIQ HAMEED
Published: 5 September 2006
HUMAN rights activists are calling for sweeping reform in the way that Bahrain naturalises foreigners, to ensure fairness and transparency.
Reforms should make the process more difficult to manipulate and more supportive of expatriates’ and citizens’ economic, social and political rights, says the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
It also wants public dialogue to “find a solution” to what it sees as problems with the process.
The appeal follows allegations that citizens were being naturalised for politically motivated reasons, linked to upcoming national elections.
By KANWAL TARIQ HAMEED
Published: 5 September 2006
HUMAN rights activists are calling for sweeping reform in the way that Bahrain naturalises foreigners, to ensure fairness and transparency.
Reforms should make the process more difficult to manipulate and more supportive of expatriates’ and citizens’ economic, social and political rights, says the now-dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR).
It also wants public dialogue to “find a solution” to what it sees as problems with the process.
The appeal follows allegations that citizens were being naturalised for politically motivated reasons, linked to upcoming national elections.
Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa dismissed this as untrue on Saturday, saying the naturalisation process was “apolitical” and “legal”.
But the BCHR says the issue can only be permanently resolved by bringing fundamental changes to the system.
“The law does not impose on the authorities to grant the citizenship automatically to those that the law is applicable to,” it says in a report on the naturalisation process, released yesterday.
“This gives free scope to discrimination and favouritism in granting citizenship based on unwritten laws and according to the authority’s tendency and mood – a major problem considering the lack of transparency and accountability.”
While some applications for citizenship have been frozen for years on the basis that the individual has not been able to prove they have revoked citizenship from their country of origin, others are granted citizenship even though they still carry other passports, says the BCHR report.
The current process means that many people who are eligible for citizenship still have not been granted it, including hundreds of “stateless citizens” and the children of Bahraini women who have married non-Bahraini men, say the BCHR.
“Article 15 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that everyone has the right to a nationality,” it says.
“Moreover, children of Bahraini mothers are deprived of Bahraini citizenship because of their father’s holding a different nationality, even though Bahrain is a member state in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which says that all state parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.”
Current practices and policies and the lack of transparency contribute to “racial and sectarian tensions on the political and social level, which causes inflexibility and hatred towards foreigners in general, including towards those who obtained the citizenship in a normal way”, says the BCHR.
“Bahrain suffers from an escalating unemployment rate, low wages and a housing shortage and many citizens and foreigners suffer from this dilemma.
“Instead of making economic reforms that include organising the import of foreign workers’ and improving the status of wages and work circumstances for citizens and foreigners in general, the authority – and for political purposes – turns towards settling foreigners in large numbers.
“Naturalising foreign workers does not necessarily mean guaranteeing their rights and improving their living standards. Rather it robs them of some privileges such as residential and emigration allowances.”
Bahrain says one thing but does another – refusing to join an international treaty governing naturalisation of foreigner workers, but then pushing ahead with its own programme, says the report.
“Bahraini authorities have refrained from joining the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and justifies this by claiming that settling foreigners jeopardises the demographic make-up in Bahrain,” it says.
Clear information on how many people have been naturalised and their country of origin is not available, says the BCHR.
A decree preventing parliament from discussing issues which date back to before its formation prevents MPs from discussing the matter in a “serious and sincere way”, it claims.
The report also claims that workers for special security forces are recruited based on ethnic and sectarian background and granted citizenship in “extraordinary” circumstances and number.
Many have not fulfilled legal requisites, especially the period of residence, for citizenship, says the report.
“The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) calls upon the concerned authorities and panels of human rights to intervene and work for the authorities to announce all information regarding naturalisation, especially the number of naturalised individuals and their identities,” said vice-president Nabeel Rajab.
Permit
Bahrain should “permit publicised discussion, debate and finding solutions for this issue, carry out administrative reforms in departments related to granting Bahraini citizenship and hold those in charge accountable of any violations,” he urged.
“Amend the naturalisation law in a way that determines clearly the extraordinary naturalisation criteria and limits to prevent its abuse and provides transparency by officially declaring the situations of granting the citizenship.”
Mr Rajab said the centre also called for a “humane solution” to reconsidering the position of those who have allegedly been granted citizenship without meeting these legal criteria.
It also calls for laws and procedures to end discrimination in naturalisation, employment, accommodation and citizenship privileges.
A final priority is granting “stateless citizens” and the children of Bahraini mothers and non-Bahraini fathers citizenship rights.
“Priority (should be given) in granting extraordinary citizenship to those who are deprived of it – to women who have Bahraini children and to Bahraini women’s children,” says the report. “(Authorities should) hasten the procedures of granting citizenship to those who are entitled to it and issue passports to those Bahrainis deprived from it.”
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