Human Rights Watch slams Bahrain over lagging efforts to end torture

The latest annual report from a Bahrain office tasked with addressing torture and mistreatment of detainees indicates that authorities have made little progress in holding police and security forces accountable, said Human Rights Watch on Monday.

“The third annual report from the Office of the Ombudsman, released on 1 June 2016, indicates that there have been no convictions in alleged cases of torture relating to political unrest since the Office of the Ombudsman was set up to accept complaints in February 2012,” the watchdog said in a statement.

The Office of Ombudsman, which operates under the Bahraini interior ministry, receives complaints from detainees, their families and human rights organizations and refers them to the relevant investigating authorities.

“The report provides further evidence that the Ombudsman routinely refers torture allegations to the Interior Ministry’s Special Investigation Unit, but does not indicate whether that body has taken even limited steps to investigate these complaints,” HRW said.

The statement quoted Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director, as saying: “This third report from the Ombudsman’s office underscores the serious inadequacy of Bahrain’s highly-touted efforts to end torture by its security forces.”

“Torture has not stopped in Bahrain, and the institutions that were supposed to address the problem aren’t holding anyone accountable,” Stork added.

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