The proposed draft law is an amended version of the current 1973 Assembly Law and would replace an earlier proposal that the government withdrew because it was rejected by the House of Deputies two months ago and brought an amended one, which does not differ from the earlier draft. According to the new draft, demonstration or rally organisers will have to inform the authorities three days before the event and will have to assume responsibility for all acts of sabotage, damage or disturbances.
The new draft contains several measures which constitute severe infringements of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. "The information about the gathering must be provided to the police by three people who must be from the area where it is going to be held. They must also reside in the area and must have a clean police record," according to the proposal. Demonstrations, marches or rallies near hospitals, airports, malls, diplomatic missions, international organisations, main avenues and restricted areas will be strictly forbidden. The draft also bans holding public meetings before 9am or after 11.30pm and staging demonstrations or rallies before sunrise or after sunset. Furthermore, the organisers who did not abide by the new law would be sentenced to six months of imprisonment and given fines of at least 100 Bahraini dinars while participants in illegal gatherings could be jailed for up to four months.
FIDH and BHRS urge the Bahraini authorities to reconsider the proposed law and to ensure that the new association law will be in compliance with the international standards related to the respect of public freedoms as Art. 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which ensures « the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association ». Our organisations consider in particular, the threat to prison sentences for organisers and participants in « illegal » gatherings as well as the limitation of places for gathering and demonstration as strict violations of fundamental liberties.
FIDH and BHRS urge the Bahraini government to:
Amend the domestic law including the draft Assembly law, in order to conform to the international standards which ensure the respect of fundamental liberties as freedoms of expression and of association and the right to peaceful assembly;
Ensure the freedom of peaceful assembly and to conform in particular, to 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders which stipulates in its Art. 5b that « for the purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, everyone has the right, individually and in association with others (...) to meet or assemble peacefully »;
Put an end to all prosecutions against individuals which aim at sanctioning their right to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly;
Ratify the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights, as previously announced.