An ombudsman for all Bahrainis?

In the wake of a harsh crackdown on protesters in February and March 2011that left dozens dead, King Hamad of Bahrain appointed a panel of international human rights experts headed by Egyptian law Professor Cherif Bassiouni.

Bassiouni’s report, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), was released in November 2011. It represented a damning indictment of the government’s handling of the mostly peaceful protests and in particular the way in which police and the security forces behaved.

King Hamad accepted the report and all of its recommendations in full.

Amongst the many recommendations was one that for the Gulf and indeed the entire Middle East is truly revolutionary: the creation of a police ombudsman.

Working closely with the UK government and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, the Ministry of Interior (under whose jurisdiction the ombudsman falls) set a strong pace in establishing the office of the Bahrain Independent Ombudsman, the first ever in the region.

Led by Nawaf Al-Moawda, who had previously worked in the public prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Information, the ombudsman’s office was launched in July last year. Al-Moawda issued his first annual report in May.

A Culture of Impunity

The matter of policing in the Gulf and throughout the Middle East can best be captured in one word: impunity. That is police acting with little or no fear of consequence for their behaviour.

Of course the region is not alone in having police who behave badly. Every jurisdiction in the world has rotten cops, but in authoritarian regimes police have clear permission to act with impunity in carrying out the dictates of their superiors.

The important thing is to get results. How those results are achieved, through false arrests, beatings, torture in detention, forced confessions, threats against family members, is inconsequential.

That’s why the appointment of a police ombudsman in Bahrain is potentially of huge significance, not just for this tiny island state but for its Gulf neighbours such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Those two countries face persistent allegations of police brutality from organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

So is Bahrain a potential regional trendsetter in curbing the culture of police impunity?

Possibly.

Get it right, empower the ombudsman, require police to behave within the law and punish them effectively when they do not and in one fell swoop you have ended the culture of impunity that allows, indeed encourages, police brutality to flourish.

So how well are Al-Moawda and his youthful team of investigators doing?

Their first assessment, released in September 2013, was a promising start.

It was an investigation of conditions at Jau prison south of the capital Manama.

More than 1,000 protesters and political prisoners are held at Jau. The prison has a serious problem of overcrowding.

It is noteworthy then, that the first of 18 recommendations called for “urgent action” on overcrowding.

Other recommendations dealt with the need to separate juveniles from adult prisoners and “treat them in a manner that meets their diverse needs”.

Five dealt with issues of healthcare. Many detainees and their families have complained that medical treatment is either being denied or is inadequate.

It looked a promising start.

Nine months later the ombudsman’s first annual report has been released, and it makes for disappointing reading. Long on self-congratulations and accomplishments of questionable merit, short on breathe and depth.

Of the six sections, one is devoted entirely to “ombudsman office training and international cooperation”.

Another section provides six examples of complaints with no explanation of how the six were chosen. Five of the six can safely be described as minor allegations such as the distribution of winter clothing in prison or the confiscation of a driver’s license.

To be fair, the sixth was about an allegation of assault by staff and that allegation has now been brought to court.

But why not publish all 133 complaints that went to full investigation?

In all, the ombudsman received 242 complaints but nearly half were deemed ineligible for further investigation “because they did not concern the Ministry of Interior” or were “resolved or not upheld”.

As for recommendations from the ombudsman, the number has been halved from the Jau report and one of those recommendations repeats the call for action on overcrowding which has reportedly become even worse in the prison.

Tellingly, the ninth asks that all the recommendations from the Jau prison report “be fully implemented”, suggesting that nine months on, little has been accomplished.

Deaths in Custody

In the annual report, the ombudsman investigated 11 deaths and in five cases determined no further action was necessary, while another five cases were either referred to prosecutors or to the Special Investigations Unit. One case resulted in a six month prison sentence and fines for the officer involved.

These deaths all occurred between July 29, 2013, and April 18, 2014. The ombudsman chose not to investigate cases before July 2013.

Why not?

Setting aside the more than two dozen deaths attributed by human rights organisations to the indiscriminate use of teargas and birdshots in the three years since the protest was crushed, what about the five people beaten to death in detention in 2011?

In a recent interview in Al-Monitor the BICI head Cherif Bassiouni recognised that progress had been made by the government of Bahrain and in particular acknowledged the efforts of the minister of the interior. However he noted what he called a “piece-meal” approach to the implementation of his recommendations.

He went on to say: “The accountability mechanism leaves much to be desired. We’re dealing with about 300 cases of torture, we were dealing with deaths under torture, at least five cases that were completely documented. These cases have not been adequately investigated, they have not been adequately prosecuted. The two prosecutions and one conviction that came about were very, very meagre and modest. That leaves a great deal to be desired.”

The author has put questions to the ombudsman’s office about the methodology used in the report. He has also raised two individual cases of allegations of medical treatment of detainees being withheld but there has been no reply to those questions.

However the far bigger question, and one which the ombudsman has still to answer effectively, is: Is he serious about using his office to work towards an end to the culture of police impunity or is the Bahrain Independent Ombudsman what its critics say it is: little more than an expensive exercise in window dressing?

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.