In the resolution adopted the 12 September 2013 on the human rights situation in Bahrain, the European Parliament (EP) calls on the Bahraini authorities to put an “ immediate end to all acts of repression, including judicial harassment, and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, political activists, journalists, bloggers, doctors and paramedics, human rights defenders and peaceful protesters, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Nabeel Rajab, Ibrahim Sharif, Naji Fateel, Zainab Al-Khawaja, Mahdi’Issa Mahdi Abu Deeb and Jalila Al-Salman ”.
FIDH welcomes this resolution which follows an intensive round of advocacy meetings in Brussels with its member organisation the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). FIDH and the BCHR made a series of recommendations figuring in the resolution, notably the setting up of a human rights monitoring mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council to follow the implementation of the BICI recommendations.
FIDH, whose secretary general Nabeel Rajab remains imprisoned, has persistently called for the EU to step up its response and regrets the weak EU response to the overall situation of human rights in Bahrain. Therefore FIDH and BCHR are pleased that the EP recognises this weakness and “ calls on the HR/VP to condemn the ongoing violations of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to impose targeted restrictive measures (visa bans and asset freezes) against those individuals responsible for, and involved in, the human rights abuses (as documented by the BICI report) ".