A report from Amnesty International says it has been "utterly disingenuous" of the UK government to "pretend" that Bahrain's Ombudsman of the Ministry of Interior and the Special Investigations Unit within the Public Prosecution Office have been making significant human rights reform.
The institutions, set up in 2012 in the wake of the Bahraini government's violent crackdown into protests, have received UK support over the past few years, and while they have been designed to improve the human rights situation in Bahrain, questions remain over their effectiveness.
New Amnesty report 2day:Windowdressing or pioneers of change?An assessment of Bahrain's humanrights oversight bodies https://t.co/CvCFGwjmOZ pic.twitter.com/LenozNnIue
— Amnesty Bahrain (@aibahrain) November 21, 2016
While Amnesty's report, based on more than 90 interviews with victims of human rights violations, their friends and lawyers, acknowledged that some progress has been made on the issue of human rights, the organization urged UK ministers to confront the "awkward reality that these UK-backed institutions are seriously flawed and widely seen as a PR tool of the Bahraini authorities."
Amnesty says that in some cases the institutions have failed to protect certain detainees from torture, while only a very small number of security forces have been convicted of crimes, leading to concerns that some allegations are not being properly dealt with.
UK Must 'Confront Awkward Reality'
Despite the long-held concerns over human rights and the actions of the country's security forces, Bahrain has enjoyed the strong support of the UK in recent times, with then Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond claiming last year that the Middle Eastern country has been "making significant reform," telling the House of Commons that it "is a country which is traveling in the right direction."
The UK has been under heavy criticism for its continued support of the Bahraini government in the face of violence allegations, with the government attacked for agreeing to a deal to build a British naval base in the country.
Meanwhile, the new report comes ahead of UK Prime Minister Theresa May's expected visit to the country next month.
Amnesty report exposes serious shortcomings in UK-supported institutions @Ombudsman_bh @siu_bah Majority of victims r #StillWaiting4Justice pic.twitter.com/t0xelxJU5K
— Amnesty Bahrain (@aibahrain) November 21, 2016
"Five years after Bahrain's shocking crackdown on protesters its peaceful human rights activists are still being jailed after unfair trials, yet to listen to UK ministers one would think the country had long ago turned a corner and put these human rights abuses behind it," said Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UK's head of policy and government affairs.
Bahrain is also paying most of the bill for a new UK naval base
— Tom Copley (@tomcopley) June 17, 2016
"It was a welcome move when Bahrain set up these two bodies back in 2012 but it's utterly disingenuous of the UK Government to pretend they're delivering substantial human rights reform in Bahrain.
"Instead of acting as over-excited cheerleaders for Bahrain's woefully inadequate reforms, UK ministers ought to be confronting the awkward reality that these UK-backed institutions are seriously flawed and widely seen as a PR tool of the Bahraini authorities."
