Bahrain human rights minister meets British ambassador

Minister of State for Human Rights Affairs Dr. Salah bin Ali Abdulrahman received the Ambassador of United Kingdom to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Iain Lindsay, stressing solid, historic bilateral friendship and cooperation relations. The Minister said that the Ministry considers with appreciation the boosting of coordination and cooperation between the two friendly countries especially in the field of human rights aimed to boost administrative and institutional expertise and to enrich the Bahraini experience in the field of human rights, praising the British Ambassador’s stance towards recent incidents and his denunciation of all acts of violence and terrorism and his support to national dialogue. The Minister said that policemen were deliberately attacked, killed and maimed by aggressive terrorist elements who do not embrace any lawful national vocation or agenda or capable of achieving any progress in the democratic process. This bespeaks of their brutal language of communicating that is alien to our traditional Bahraini ethics nor the values of national unity, cooperation, solidarity, amity, cohesion, compliance with law, law enforcement officers and institutions. The Minister said that the Ministry of State for Human Rights Affairs watches increasingly-growing unlawful provocative calls and incitement of violence, sabotage by outlaws and illegal organizations and continuous assaults against public and private properties which are considered a blatant infringement against universal human rights acknowledged by constitutions and international conventions. Such violations should be tackled according to the law and in the light of natioal legislations and international conventions. The Minister said the right to stage peaceful demonstrations is grantable according to the provisions of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Constitution and national laws. In fact, the relevant government authorities granted permission to many peaceful demonstrations, however, some demonstrations unfortunately changed to hostile, violent, terrorist behaviour and had to be coped with according to the law. The two sides stressed the importance of starting an inclusive dialogue without pre-conditions in which all segments of the Bahraini community participate in order to come up with win-win consensual solutions and to rebuild trust. The Minister said that the Government supports dialogue and its doors are open to everybody and that the door to dialogue has never been blocked at any time. Dialogue may begin at various stages and levels in order to come up with solutions satisfactory to all. The Ambassador expressed his gratitude to Minister of State for Human Rights, and appreciation of, his good hospitality, pointing out that there is opportunity for cooperation and cooperation between the two countries in the area of human rights to the benefit and advantage of the community. (IY)