News - Middle East: The Bahraini government is using its political isolation laws and a series of other tactics to keep activists and former opposition party members out of public office and other aspects of public life, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.

“You Can’t Call Bahrain A Democracy: Bahrain’s Political Isolation Laws,” documents the use of Bahrain’s 2018 political isolation laws to keep political opponents from running for parliament seats or even serving on the boards of governors of civic organizations.

Human Rights Watch found that the government’s targeted marginalization of opposition figures from social, political, civil, and economic life in Bahrain resulted in a spectrum of other human rights abuses. The Bahraini government should repeal the 2018 political isolation laws, end the practice of denying certificates of good behavior to punish perceived opponents, and restore full legal, political, and civil rights to all Bahraini citizens.

It should restore the previously dissolved political societies, lift all restrictions imposed on opposition figures regarding candidacy in the parliamentary and municipal elections, end the restrictive measures that are harming the basic functioning of civil associations, and release anyone jailed solely for their peaceful political activities.

Other countries, including close allies of Bahrain like the US, United Kingdom, and European Union states, should pressure Bahraini authorities to end its repression of peaceful opposition and civil society, and reject the results of what will be unfree and unfair parliamentary elections in November if they do not.

Source: Human Rights Watch