MADRID, 31 October (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

Human Rights Watch warned Monday that Bahrain is using its political isolation laws and other tactics to keep activists and former opposition party members away from public forums and other aspects of public life.

In a report released Monday, the NGO noted that “Bahrain cannot be called a democracy” because it has spent the last decade “repressing peaceful opposition.” For this reason, they point out that the next parliamentary election is a mockery, because they cannot be free or fair when “any political opposition is illegal.”

The country’s courts dissolved the country’s two main political parties, Al Wifaq and Wadad in 2016 and 2017 and the subsequent introduction of political isolation laws has led to individual life sentences for members of these groups.

Activists and human rights defenders have also been affected by these regulations, many of whom were arrested in the crackdown launched during and after the 2011 pro-democracy and anti-government uprisings.

HRW points out that lawyers and civil society have interpreted this law since its implementation to target those who “interfere” with Bahrain’s constitutionalism or who resign or boycott their elected positions to protest the government’s repressive policies.

During the November 2018 parliamentary elections, the first elections in which political isolation rules apply, Bahrain’s Ministry of Justice barred at least 12 former opposition figures from running, while many others believed they would fall victim to the law and boycotted the election.

The report also documents further arrests and citations of Bahrainis for speech-related offences. A former Bahraini journalist stated that due to “continuous arrests from 2011 to 2017, fear became part of what people experience every day. It is normal for people to self-censor and silence themselves before reacting.”

HRW has urged the government to repeal this regulation, end the practice of denying good conduct certificates to punish opponents, and restore full legal, political and civil rights to all Bahraini citizens. In addition, he has called on Western countries such as the United States, Britain and the 27 European Union to put pressure on these practices to end.

“The Bahraini civil society and opposition coalition that used to exist are being pushed aside by laws governing government repression. No one should be under the illusion that Bahrain’s ‘democratic institutions’ are more than a hoax, concludes Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa researcher Joey Shea.