Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The Government of Bahrain stands alone in its stance regarding the implementation of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) recommendations. The Government claims that it implemented the 26 recommendations and closed the 612-page report, but a number of states and organizations as well as the President of the Commission himself say otherwise.

The commission, chaired by the late criminal law expert Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, passed through major points. However, since its recommendations did not make their way to implementation, the most important point was when Bassiouni read a summary of the report in a spectacle event held on November 23, 2011, which was attended by the King and his aides.

• On June 29, 2011, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa announced the formation of an independent fact-finding commission headed by Mahmoud Bassiouni.

• The Commission comprises five investigators: Bassiouni as president (USA/Egypt), Judge Philippe Kirsch (Belgium/Canada), Professor Sir Nigel Simon Rodley (UK), Dr. Mahnoush Arsanjani (Iran) and Dr. Badria Al-Awadhi (Kuwait).

• The total number of staff of the Commission was 51, whose employment contracts included a confidentiality clause.

• The Commission began its work on July 20, 2011, and collected during its work 8110 complaints and statements and testimonies regarding human rights violations. They were as follows:
  - 2639 written statements
  -5188 statements submitted in person or electronically
  -238 statements made by institutions

• The Commission's investigators interviewed 5188 people, including imprisoned opposition figures.

• Due to the many large reports received by the Commission on the violations, Bassiouni requested, during a meeting with the King on October 18, 2011,  the extension of the Commission's work from October 20 to November 23.

• In front of a platform on which the King sat, between the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad and Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman, Bassiouni recited the conclusions and results of the report.

• The international community praised the results of the report and called for the implementation of its 26 recommendations.

• Three days after the report was issued, the King ordered the formation of a national committee concerned with the implementation of the BICI recommendations. It was headed by Shura Council chairman Ali Al-Saleh. It; however, was not neutral as Bassiouni recommended.

• On May 9, 2016, the King held a ceremony "marking the government's conclusion of the implementation of recommendations."

• A month after the ceremony and in his last statement on the Bahraini situation, Bassiouni said that the Bahraini government had implemented only 10 recommendations.

Arabic Version