Anniversary of Protests in Bahrain

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, in a truly dubious distinction, this week marks the 7th year since tens of thousands of Bahraini citizens took to the streets of Manama in protest.

These brave men and women put themselves at great risk to demand greater access to their political system and more accountability from their government.

Rather than engage these protestors in meaningful dialogue, the regime responded with violence, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

After much international attention, Bahrain's King agreed to set up the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, or BICI, and to fully implement its recommended reforms.

I say to the Senate today, on the seventh anniversary of the demonstrations, that the regime has not upheld this fundamental commitment.

In fact, the situation has only grown worse over the past 12 months as the regime has actually taken a number of huge steps back.

In January of 2017, the regime restored arrest and detainment powers to Bahrain's National Security Agency, despite that agency's past involvement in torture and coercion of political prisoners.

Later in the year, the King approved a constitutional amendment allowing military courts to try Bahraini citizens, a move Amnesty International called ``disastrous'' and warned would be used to crack down on political opposition.

These policies are fundamentally at odds with the BICI recommendations and make clear what folks in international human rights community have long said, that the regime has no intention of upholding its commitment.

The State Department last certified in 2013 that the regime had fully implemented a mere handful of the BICI recommendations. The last State Department update, in 2016, failed to identify any further progress taken.

Last year a panel of UN human rights experts noted a ``sharp deterioration of the human rights situation in the country . . . aimed at muzzling any discordant voice and suppressing dissent.''

The State Department's most recent Human Rights Report details the Bahraini regime's willingness to revoke citizenship as a punishment, often without providing a concrete justification and without an opportunity for basic due process.

A Washington Post story from last year indicated the regime revoked citizenship from more than 100 Bahrainis in the first half of 2017, and reports indicate the regime issued deportation orders to eight Bahrainis just last month after stripping them of citizenship.

A number of organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, have echoed these observations.

Regrettably, the Trump administration has done almost nothing to push Bahrain's leaders to fulfill their commitments and do better by their own citizens.

Why would they when the Embassy of Bahrain is throwing lavish parties at the Trump Hotel right here in DC?

As I try to make clear every year, these observations, which have become a sad tradition of mine, are not an attempt to undermine Bahrain's government.

Bahrain has been a longtime U.S. ally and a partner in a region where partnership can be difficult to come by, but precisely because of our close ties, I feel compelled to speak out when I see such blatant repression of basic human rights.

Oregonians--indeed, Americans--expect their elected officials to hold our international partners to a higher standard. And that is what I am doing here today.

I renew my call on the Bahrain's monarchy to halt its deliberate campaign of silencing peaceful opposition, to stop the indefensible revocation of citizenships, and to release political prisoners like Nabeel Rajab and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja.

I fear that only then will Bahrain be able to move forward together in peace and prosperity, and I look forward to that day.

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