*** ----> Bahrain has undergone transformative changes in its understanding and management of human rights issues: Sam Zakhem | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Bahrain has undergone transformative changes in its understanding and management of human rights issues: Sam Zakhem

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Former US Ambassador to Bahrain Sam Zakhem has lauded the legislative and legal measures taken by Bahrain to ensure human rights.

Zakhem hailed Bahrain for the establishment of Ombudsman at the Ministry of Interior and the Special Investigation at the Office of the Public Prosecutor, legal reforms such as raising the juvenile age to eighteen, alternative sentencing, and de-emphasising the role of confessions as evidence of guilt.

In an opinion piece published in the US “National Interest” magazine, on “How Bahrain Is Improving its Human Rights Record”, Zakhem urged the American officials to ‘re-balance their approach to human rights and that not all protestors are high-minded Jeffersonians.

Bahrain, he said, strives to confront these challenges openly, “which required more cooperation by the United States to produce better results.”

Recalling the statement of former US President Ronald Reagan, who said in 1987, “Ounce for ounce and inch for inch, Bahrain is America’s best friend in the world today” Zakhem said, “Thirty-four years later, his assessment remains truer than ever.” The ambassador indicated that Bahrain is a “multi-ethnic, multi-confessional melting pot in which the vast majority of citizens seek to better themselves economically, politically, and socially.

They have lived together peacefully for centuries, and their modern history has been forged in concert with Western values and political and economic models.”

Bold and concerted action

“Over the past ten years, the government of Bahrain has taken bold and concerted action. In 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (Bassiouni Commission) released its report into the unrest of that year and made far-reaching recommendations, many of which have been implemented.”

“Bahrain has also undergone transformative changes in its understanding and management of human rights issues.

There now exist unprecedented measures for legal protection, oversight, and accountability to protect citizens from governmental excesses,” he added. He denounced the keenness of some critics not to recognise the positive developments. “Some detractors will never be satisfied, however. They will continue to label Bahrain a pariah as long as members of the opposition remain incarcerated or prisoners allege abuse. This ‘all or nothing' approach is misguided, he said.

The former US Ambassador expressed dismay over the fact that “criticisms lack context and homogenize detainees. Many of Bahrain’s highest-profile prisoners are bona fide bad actors. Some have plotted and carried out targeted acts of violence involving sophisticated explosive devices that have killed scores of policemen.

Others are members of groups that the United States has designated as foreign terrorist organisations. The evidence against them is overwhelming and not the product of forced confessions. They are violent extremists—armed, trained, and funded by hostile foreign powers.”

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He pointed out that “just as Europeans and Americans have struggled to control the scourge of terrorists in their midst, so are Bahraini institutions grappling with this threat.

It is a difficult and existential challenge, and like pluralistic societies everywhere, they will admit that it is a work in progress.

‘Re-balance’

Ambassador Zakhem urged the US officials to ‘re-balance’ their approach to human rights, stressing that “principled advocacy of universally recognised civil and political rights is a must, but the world is a messy place.

Facts matter and not all protestors are high-minded Jeffersonians.” “As Bahrain strives to ‘confront these challenges openly,’ a more cooperative and less adversarial approach by the United States would produce better results,” he said.