Dubai: Bahrain has rejected the “negative remarks” contained in the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ written review on the annual report on the kingdom. The review contained inaccurate information such as harassment of human rights defenders and other deleterious comments on the recent legal actions taken by Bahrain, Dr. Yousuf Abdul Kreem Bucheeri, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva and other organisations, said during the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner on Bahrain’s annual report and its review at the Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
“Such recurrent void allegations as not based on impartial or objective sources and do not touch the reality of the situation in the kingdom,” he said. “They deliberately and unfairly side with malicious elements who have suspicious political agendas and sectarian tendencies and who want to inflict harm on the Kingdom of Bahrain and demean its achievements in the field of human rights. This is crystal clear from their support for the discourse of hatred and groups indulging in violence internally. For this reason, Bahrain totally rejects the content of this statement with all the wrong and unacceptable descriptions it has given about the state.”
Bucheeri said Bahrain’s constitution stipulates the right to freedom of opinion and expression in a way that guarantees everyone’s right to express their opinion and disseminate it by word, written or otherwise, but within the legal framework and without inciting division or sectarianism or undermining national security.
Organising demonstrations and gatherings and specifying the areas where they should be held is a decision based on sound legal grounds and is not intended to impede freedom, peaceful assembly or free expression, he added.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights should make concerted efforts to understand the reality of human rights and the great challenges facing Bahrain which has to deal with terrorist acts aimed to undermine its security and stability.
“The kingdom confronts a phenomenon of violent extremism and it is the duty of the Office of the High Commissioner to do its best to double check the credibility of the information it obtained and to seek such information only from neutral, objective and non-politicised sources.”
