Bahrain Mirror- Exclusive: The Bahraini activist and executive director of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) Husain Abdulla said that the recommendations presented to Bahrain, during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Bahrain's human rights record in Geneva on Monday (May 1, 2017), are the fruits of the Bahraini organizations efforts and that of the Bahraini activists, inside and outside Bahrain, through their continuous meetings with the diplomatic delegations and foreign ministries of the states to reflect the real incidents taking place in Bahrain.

Abdulla said in a statement to Bahrain Mirror that Bahraini activists, inside and outside Bahrain, are the ones who convinced these states to present these recommendations and that using this international mechanism to unveil the happenings in Bahrain will bind the government of Bahrain to accept these recommendations in the near future and accept that there is a real crisis in Bahrain that can't be veiled by satisfying the ally countries.

ADHRB director announced that "all what's going on in Bahrain was mentioned in these recommendations, including the rise of the oppression processes to the highest levels. These recommendations address, to a large extent, the problems and continuous violations faced by the Bahrainis."

"The Bahraini government couldn't promote its terrorism and security danger games in the human rights forums as it wanted to do. It hoped to convince the world that Bahrain faces real danger and that the countries must leave it alone to take action; arrest whoever it wants, torture whoever it wants and investigate people in the way it deems legal. However, the international community in Geneva, despite denying the security challenges in Bahrain, said that these problems can't be solved by the way followed by the government," he further stated.

The London-based activist who attended Monday's session added that the recommendations touch the bitter reality witnessed in Bahrain. The Government couldn't hide this truth from the world. However, the countries clearly told Bahrain that you face a real problem and you have to deal with it according to the ways mentioned in the recommendations.

He went on to say that the recommendations presented by some African countries, like Botswana, were remarkable. Meanwhile, he criticized the Iraqi stance, describing it as "shameful". He also considered that Qatar's recommendations were better than those made by the Iraqi delegation.

Husain Abdulla commented saying that the UK and US stances did not change in regards to human rights issues and that both of the states still admit that there is a human rights crisis in Bahrain, however, their policies towards Bahrain contradicts with the criticism they expressed.

As for the responses and speeches of the official delegation, Abdullah said the member-states' recommendations at the session spoke in a direction, while the official delegation's response spoke in another direction.

He explained that the official delegation wasn't a small one; it included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Defence and representatives from the Royal Court as well as members from the Shura Council and deputies. He said that they were given ready speeches to deliver "the Bahraini government dealt seriously with Geneva's session and the importance it showed before and after the session reveal that it is dealing seriously with the issue and that this issue has a great influence on it. Bahrain is still concerned to show that everything mentioned about it abroad is but lies and that it worked to refute these lies. The Government of Bahraini wanted to appear as a winner in Geneva."

Activist Abdullah severely criticized the opening speech of Abdullah Al-Dossari, Deputy Foreign Minister and head of the official delegation to Geneva, saying that "it was remarkable that Al-Dossari lacks diplomatic experience. How do you commence your official speech on an international platform by criticizing the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), affiliated to the United Nations? How do you criticize the party that all people consider the most noble, independent and neutral in the international system? This is a proof on the flop in confronting the international stance, and a proof on the lack of statesmanship and vision. The government's performance was too bad and the large delegation was but an unconvincing decoration."

As for the influence of Geneva's recommendations on the Bahraini reality, Husain noted that "the UPR mechanism should be given its reals size; not more and not less," adding that "giving these recommendations means that these states are now convinced that there is a crisis situation in Bahrain and that Bahraini activists and human rights defenders, in the country and abroad, have to work on these recommendations, make use of them and demand the states that presented them to work in order to get them achieved. He stressed that these states should work in all possible means, including pressuring on Bahrain and raising the recommendations issue in every meeting held between any official from these states and Government of Bahrain."

In the same context, the Bahraini activist and executive director of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) Husain Abdulla believed that the political opposition should invest these human rights achievements so that they don't go in vain, "there should be a meaningful political project and political initiatives on ground. Only then, this work would have impact."

Arabic Version