A delegation of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has been sent to Bahrain from 6 to 10 November 2005 to take part in the Parallel Conference to the Forum for the Future on 7-8 November and to do a follow-up mission to the round table on the International Criminal Court (ICC). This round table took place in Manama on 2-4 June 2004, organized by FIDH in coordination with its member organization in Bahrain, the Bahrain Society for Human Rights (BHRS) and with the support of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC).
On 9 November 2005, the FIDH delegation composed by FIDH and BHRS representatives met Bahraini authorities in order to discuss the initiatives taken since June 2004 in the way of the ratification of the ICC Statute. The delegation met with representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Shura council and the Council of representatives, as well as with UK ambassador. FIDH and BHRS welcome the interest expressed by the Bahraini authorities for the ICC and their ongoing efforts to harmonize domestic law with the Rome Statute. Our organizations encourage Bahrain in its commitment to ratify the Statute of the ICC in the first half of 2006. FIDH and BHRS consider that the Kingdom of Bahrain could take a leading role in the field of democratic reforms and human rights, in particular in the Gulf region.
In the scope of its follow-up mission, FIDH also supported and took part in a two-day training session on 9-10 November 2005, organized by Amnesty International Bahrain and the CICC with the support of the Bahrain Bar Society, for representatives of Bahraini and Gulf civil societies. This session aimed to further disseminate information about the ICC to representatives of the Bahraini civil society and to reinforce the national coalition for the ICC, that now counts 19 organizations, human rights activists and lawyers.
The ICC has also been an issue discussed during the second Parallel Conference to the Forum for the Future, attended by numerous civil society NGOs and individuals upon an initiative by the BHRS with the support of the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our organizations welcome this complementary initiative to the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) and the Civil Society Dialogues implemented by the G8 and Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) States. FIDH and BHRS requests the Forum for the Future to take in particular into account the following recommendations expressed by the participants to the second Parallel Conference of Manama and to urge the member States :
to ratify the international instruments for the protection of human rights and to act in conformity with their international obligations, and in particular, to fully respect freedoms of expression, opinion, association and assembly as a first step towards democratic reforms;
to encourage the States under state of emergency to abolish state of emergency laws;
to amend their internal counter-terrorist legislations, so as to comply with their human rights obligations;
to ratify the Statute of the ICC and implement the Statute into domestic law.
FIDH and BHRS consider that the Kingdom of Bahrain as the host of the next meeting of the Forum for the Future on 11-12 November 2005 should serve as an example and fully comply with the international law on human rights and respect its international obligations. The imminent ratification by Bahrain of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will be an important step forward.