Chairperson of the NIHR meets President of the Human Rights Council
As part of the visit by NIHR’s delegation to the Swiss city of Geneva, HE Mr. Saeed bin Mohamed Al-Faihani, Chairperson of the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR), held a meeting with HE Ambassador Joaquin Martelli, President of the Human Rights Council and Permanent Representative of Salvador, in his office at the UN Palace.
At the beginning of the meeting, Chairperson of the NIHR presented an overview of NIHR’s achievements since the last meeting held with President of the Council last May during the visit by NIHR’s delegation participating in the meetings of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of the Kingdom of Bahrain. He explained to him the follow-up by the NIHR for the recommendations to be adopted at the meeting of the Working Group that will be held during the next session of the Human Rights Council in September.
On the other hand, Chairperson of the NIHR discussed the severing of diplomatic relations with the State of Qatar by the Kingdom of Bahrain and a number of Gulf and Arab countries and the alleged violations of human rights raised as a result thereof, especially the campaign launched by the National Human Rights Committee in the State of Qatar and the allegations of violations by the boycotting States of a number of fundamental rights. He added that His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, may God protect him, issued a royal order to consider the humanitarian cases of Bahraini-Qatari joint families in recognition of the brotherly Qatari people, which represents a natural and genuine extension of their brothers in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the matter which is also considered by the rest of the Gulf countries. As a result thereof, orders were issued to devote a hotline to handle such humanitarian cases, if any, and to facilitate their affairs with the aim to preserve the family fabric.
Chairperson of the NIHR also pointed out that the severing of diplomatic affairs with the State of Qatar did not affect the human rights, stressing that the NIHR in Bahrain is closely monitoring the situation to ensure the non-infringement of fundamental rights of citizens of both countries, in defiance of the allegations by the National Human Rights Committee in the State of Qatar for the existence of blockade resulting in violation of human rights, pointing out that officials of the National Human Rights Committee in the State of Qatar would not be able to travel from one country to another if there were a blockade. He added that Qatar’s airspace is open and it has the freedom to navigate in its territorial waters. He called on the National Human Rights Committee in the State of Qatar to refrain from pushing the issue of human rights into the crisis, which has stemmed from Qatar’s support for terrorism, and to perform its role in providing solutions that aim to stop the financing of those terrorism movements, which mainly work on the violation of human rights in Bahrain and a number of countries, calling on the Committee not to bias to the governmental side and change the course of the issue by turning it from a political and security issue into a human rights one.
Chairperson of the NIHR added that, to date, no person or family, Bahraini, Qatari or other, has submitted any complaints to the NIHR related to the consequences of severing the diplomatic relations, and that we should focus on the main reasons that called on the Kingdom of Bahrain and other countries to sever the diplomatic relations with the State of Qatar and find out radical solutions to them rather than creating problems that are not related to reality.
