Joint Press Release from Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, MENASolidarity and UCU

EMBARGOED UNTIL 9:00am, 24 September 2015

Unions launch campaign over UK government failure to act on Bahrain abuses.

Call for independent audit of FCO assistance to Bahrain.

UK and global trade unions today launched a campaign highlighting “widespread and systematic” human rights abuses in Bahrain and calling for an independent audit of UK government aid to the Gulf monarchy.

The University and College Union (UCU), initiated an open letter condemning British failure to act over repression in Bahrain, which has now been signed by the largest trade unions in the UK including UNITE, UNISON, GMB, CWU, NASUWT, RMT, NUT, NUJ, RCN, PCS, USDAW and BFAWU.

It has also gained the backing of Trade Union Congress (TUC), which represents 52 unions across the UK with a combined membership of 5.5 million, and Education International, the world’s largest trade union federation, which represents over 30 million education employees across 400 organisations worldwide. Union officials will launch a drive for further signatures at the Labour Party conference, which opens in Brighton on Sunday.

The statement highlights the continued detention and torture of opposition leaders, unionists, teachers, medics and students, despite rising levels of UK financial assistance aimed at supporting the Bahraini government. Signatories condemned the lack of transparency surrounding the spending, noting their shock “that there has been no independent assessment made of this expenditure of public money despite a clear deterioration in Bahrain’s human rights record”.

The statement demands an independent assessment of the FCO’s assistance spending to Bahrain, urging that “any military, diplomatic and security ties are handled with a view to ending human rights abuses”. These calls come in the wake of criticism from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which stated in 2014 that the FCO should have “bitten the bullet and listed Bahrain as a country of concern” as there was “little or no evidence that Bahrain has made enough progress in implementing political reform and safeguarding human rights”.

Elizabeth Lawrence, President of the University and College Union (UCU) said:

“UCU welcomes the fact that the TUC, Education International and so many trade unions have signed the letter concerning human rights in Bahrain.  We salute the work of all those seeking an end to human rights abuses in Bahrain and send our best wishes to trade unions and human rights defenders in Bahrain.  We also call upon the British government to take a much tougher stance with this oppressive regime. UCU members are actively engaged in Bahrain solidarity work and our annual Congress passed its latest resolution on Bahrain in May 2015.”

In 2015, the UCU congress passed a motion condemning the construction of a new British naval base in Bahrain, and ongoing UK government support for the monarchy in the midst of human rights violations such as the imprisonment of Bahraini teachers’ union leader Mahdi Abu Dheeb.

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said:

“This is a landmark stance by trade unions in the UK who are standing in unity against human rights abuses in Bahrain. We thank all of the signatories for their work in sending a clear message to the government that their support for the government of Bahrain will not go unnoticed by the British public.”