HRW – End Takeover of Lawyers’ Group Revoke Order Canceling Election Results

Bahrain: End Takeover of Lawyers’ Group Revoke Order Canceling Election Results
December 20, 2011 – HRW

It seems that adding “human rights” to its name has only made this ministry more brazen in violating international standards for freedom of association. The ministry should immediately revoke its order and allow the members of the lawyers’ society to elect their officers without the heavy hand of the state.
Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Bahraini authorities should immediately revoke an order canceling the results of the election for the Bahraini Lawyers’ Society’s governing board, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Lawyers’ Society, the official professional body for lawyers, held an election for new board members on November 26, 2011. Fatima al-Balooshi, minister of Human Rights and Social Development, issued an order on November 30 canceling the election results and reinstating the previous board and president to manage the affairs of the society for the coming six months. The ministry, which prior to June 20 had been called the Ministry of Social Development, has jurisdiction over civil society organizations in Bahrain under Law 21/1989. In its letter justifying the decision, the ministry said that the society “did not comply with the legal procedures.”

“It seems that adding ‘human rights’ to its name has only made this ministry more brazen in violating international standards for freedom of association,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The ministry should immediately revoke its order and allow the members of the lawyers’ society to elect their officers without the heavy hand of the state.”

The association’s annual election of officers was originally scheduled for April. The society postponed its election until November because the government imposed a state of emergency in March following pro-democracy demonstrations that started in mid-February.

Hameed al-Mulla, the newly elected president of the society, whose election was annulled by the ministry’s order, told Human Rights Watch that the ministerial order reinstated the board members and president who had been elected in 2009 for a six-month period. Al-Mulla, vice president during the previous term, said that five out of seven of the previous board members reject the ministry’s decision to reinstate them.

Al-Mulla said that the election had been held in accordance with both the society’s bylaws and government regulations, and that the society had notified the ministry of the election two weeks before holding its general assembly.

“The ministry refused to accept the notification letter when we tried to deliver it in person, so we sent it via special mail and received confirmation it had been delivered,” he said.

Representatives of the Bahrain Human Rights Society monitored the election, in which 85 eligible members elected the new board members, al-Mulla said.

In an earlier letter to the society, sent on November 23, the ministry asked for documentation to verify the membership of 135 of the group’s approximately 200 members, including the lawyer the ministry later reinstated to manage the society for the coming six months, al-Mulla and another member of the society told Human Rights Watch.
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