For Immediate Release: December 3, 2013

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Human Rights Defenders

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Washington D.C. – Human Rights First today calls on Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to speak out for real reform in Bahrain as he travels to the kingdom this week and to make clear that the United States will use its military relationship with the Bahrain government to press for desperately-needed change. On December 7 and 8, Secretary Hagel will lead the U.S. government delegation to the Manama Dialogue, a security conference hosted by Bahrain.

“This trip presents an opportunity for the Bahrain government to hear firsthand from a senior Obama Administration official that Washington cannot continue business as usual with Bahrain,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “Increasing repression in Bahrain is leading to greater instability, a shaky economy and a rise in sectarianism. The United States has too many interests in Bahrain to stand back and watch as it slides deeper into crisis.”

Human Rights First recommends that Secretary Hagel makes clear to senior members of the Bahrain ruling family that the home of the Fifth Fleet requires political stability and if Bahrain can’t provide that the U.S. will be forced to consider other hosts. Secretary Hagel should also reiterate President Obama’s statement that stability cannot come when political and civil society leaders are in jail  because they must be included as a necessary part of a solution. These wrongly imprisoned leaders should be freed to provide the leadership Bahrain needs to get out of its current crisis.

Last month, Human Rights First issued a new report, “Plan B for Bahrain, What the United States Government Should Do Next,” detailing steps the United States should take to support Bahrain’s transition to democracy and the rule of law. The report urged the U.S. government to:

• Withhold arms sales and transfers to the police and military, contingent upon human rights progress, starting with a request for the publication of current representation levels of Shias in recruitment and promotion targets for under-represented groups
• Urge the release of the peaceful opposition figures and other political prisoners
• Publicly announce it will continue to meet Bahraini opposition figures without the presence of a Bahraini government representative
• Defend U.S. officials under attack by the Government of Bahrain and its representatives for their advocacy of human rights and reform
• Ensure that U.S. arms transfers are not facilitating repression and gross human rights violations in Bahrain.
• Vigorously implement the Leahy Law governing U.S. military and other security assistance to Bahrain
• Promote the State Department March 2013 Principles of Human Rights Defenders to Bahraini civil society, including in Arabic
• Engage more closely and regularly with a broad range of human rights defenders in Bahrain
• Publicly call for international media and international human rights organizations to be afforded meaningful access to Bahrain

For more information about Secretary Hagel’s upcoming trip or to speak with Dooley, please contact Mary Elizabeth Margolis at margolisme@humanrightsfirst.org or 212-845-5269.