Photo Credit: Jennifer Love King
The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) has released, “One Year Later: Assessing Bahrain’s Implementation of the BICI Report,” a report looking into the Bahraini government’s progress in implementing the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry. POMED has found that the Government of Bahrain has fully implemented three of the BICI report’s 26 recommendations. Two other recommendations were impossible to properly evaluate due to a lack of available information, and we have found 15 recommendations to have only been only partially implemented. Finally, the government has made no meaningful progress toward six of the recommendations, which POMED believes are the most important steps that need to be taken – accountability for officials responsible for torture and severe human rights violations, the release of political prisoners, prevention of sectarian incitement, in addition to the relaxation of censorship and controls on free expression.