Question 39711 — foreign policy

Summary

Respect for human rights is a priority of France's diplomatic action. France is closely monitoring this issue throughout the world, while respecting the sovereignty of each of the States concerned. As such, France intervenes at various levels to promote respect for these rights in Bahrain, with particular attention to respect for freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration, in the State of right, to the non-application of the death penalty, applied for the last time in Bahrain in July 2019, and ultimately to its abandonment, and to the situation of human rights defenders. Our embassy in Bahrain also organized a virtual seminar on March 22-23, 2021, in coordination with the Judicial and Legal Studies Institute of Bahrain and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), on the sentencing system alternatives to imprisonment and on the means to best use this system, a seminar attended by the Minister of Justice of Bahrain, the Attorney General of the Kingdom and the director of the enforcement of sentences at the Ministry of the Interior. More than 3,200 prisoners have already benefited from this system, some of them as early as April. France nevertheless remains concerned by the situation of political opponents, in particular their conditions of detention. France, with its European partners, has repeatedly condemned the use of violence against political opponents in Bahrain and called on the authorities to guarantee freedom of association and peaceful demonstration, as well as independent justice and the right to a fair trial. In this perspective, France, jointly with the European Union (EU), intervenes in various forums, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, notably during the Universal Periodic Review and during bilateral contacts, to underline the great attention we pay to the human rights situation in the Kingdom and to make recommendations to the Bahraini authorities. The EU also conducts a regular dialogue with Bahrain on human rights, the last session of which was held on February 22, 2021. The head of the EU delegation, based in Riyadh, meets, during his travels in Bahrain, the Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Abdullah bin Faisal bin Jabr Al Dossari, to discuss the human rights situation.

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