Bahrain: No Progress on Reform

Official Impunity, Imprisoned Activists Undermine Claims

"(Manama) – Bahrain’s rulers have made no progress on key reform promises, failing to release unjustly imprisoned activists or to hold accountable high-level officials responsible for torture, Human Rights Watch said today at a news conference in Manama.

In addition, a draft association law adopted by the government significantly undermines what few rights independent nongovernmental associations have under the country’s current law, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch made the assessments after meeting with high-ranking officials and with political prisoners.

“All the talk of national dialogue and reform mean nothing so long as the country’s most prominent human rights and political activists remain unjustly imprisoned while officials responsible for torture and murder remain in their positions,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The minimum one should expect after the gross abuses by security forces during the 2011 uprising is recognition at the highest level of the security and defense forces, including the Interior and Defense Ministers, that they bear the responsibility for the failures of their forces – failures they have acknowledged – and will account for them.”......"