Front Line – 2 August 2006
A new anti terror law that is awaiting final ratification by the king of Bahrain, King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah, could place restrictions on the activities of human rights defenders in Bahrain, specifically their defense of the rights of freedom of expression and association.
The parliament of Bahrain has already approved the “protecting society from terrorists acts” bill and has so far ignored calls to review the law by Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Front Line – 2 August 2006A new anti terror law that is awaiting final ratification by the king of Bahrain, King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifah, could place restrictions on the activities of human rights defenders in Bahrain, specifically their defense of the rights of freedom of expression and association.
The parliament of Bahrain has already approved the “protecting society from terrorists acts” bill and has so far ignored calls to review the law by Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Director of Front Line, Mary Lawlor said: “it is worrying that Bahrain is disregarding international concerns about this proposed law especially since Bahrain is a member of the new UN Human Rights Council.”
Front Line is concerned that the broad and vague definitions of terrorist acts contained within the bill may be used to restrict the activities of human rights defenders, in relation to the rights of freedom of association, expression and assembly. Article 1 of the bill defines a prohibited terrorist act as including any act that threatens “national unity”. Front Line believes that such a broad definition of what constitutes a terrorist act may result in the restriction of the legitimate peaceful activities of human rights defenders in Bahrain.
In particular, Article 6 of the Bill defines a terrorist association or organization as being one, which aims to “prevent any of the State enterprises or public authorities from exercising their duty” and to harm “the national unity”. This definition may be used to restrict the activities of human rights defenders who criticize the Bahraini authorities in relation to human rights issues.
Front Line is also concerned about Article 11 of the Bill, which makes it a criminal offence to promote terrorist acts and to possess documents containing such promotional material. As the definition of terrorism in the Bill is so vague, Front Line believes that this Article may prevent human rights defenders from defending the right to freedom of expression and opinion and that this would be contrary to Article 6 of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.