Khabar Online: Recently in its annual meetingin Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed concern for the violation of human rights in Bahrain. In her report, Ms. NaviPillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rightspointed toto the numerous cases of detention and torture of human rights activists in Bahrain and called for sending a special human rights rapporteur to the Arabian country.
As the Bahraini regime does not allow the foreign media to report on the internal conflicts of that country, the presence of a special human rights rapporteur in Bahrain would be helpful to shed light on the ongoing crisis there.
More than 20 months after the February 14, 2011 uprising in Bahrain, due to their subordination to the world powers and their double standards toward the Arabian revolutions, the organizations claiming responsible for defending the human rights have remained silent about the crimes committed by Al Khalifa regime.
During the past twenty months, the opposition groups in Bahrain have reported more than 1700 cases of human rights violations by the Bahraini regime as in 160 cases the torture of detainees has led to their martyrdom.
It’s almost 70 years that Al Khalifa family is actually ruling over the country based on hereditary monarchy and no transition of power has been taken place in the country.
From some decades ago, the Al Khalifa tribe has taken up the reins generation after generation. On the other hand, by depriving the majority of people from political participation, they have trampled the rights of the majority Shi'ites and have monopolized the structure of power.
In the 19th century, the Al Khalifa tribe had settled in Hejaz. They [who were involved in piracy] were relocated to Bahrain by the British government and were gradually took power. The painful separation of Bahrain from Iran due to the weakness of the former Iranian regime enabled Al Khalifa to establish their domination over the Iranian island.
In 1999 when Hamad bin Isa succeeded his father, Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, it was expected that the new king would ease the restrains but the reverse proved to be true. In his 13 years of ruling, Sheikh Hamad has extremely limited the massive participation in Bahrain and has bestowed the levers of power to the members of his family. Among the total 18 ministries in the country, 15 are headed by Al Khalifa family and the majority of Bahraini people have remained on the sidelines.
However seems that the recent concerns expressed by the organizations for defending human rights on the Bahrain’s condition are in line with the presidential election campaign underway in the United States. As the presidential election in the United States is ahead, the American officials are trying to reconstruct their foreign policy which is under question for its double standards. The U.S. Department of State appears to has let the United Nations Human Rights Council to directly criticize Bahraini rulers for doing an unjustified violence in their country.
