The Al-Khalifa Ignorance Of Bahrain’s Law

MEP: We have witnessed the illegal stripping nationality from the Bahraini top Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim in the last week, which is considered as illegal action under Bahraini law and international law.

According to the article 10 of Bahraini citizenship law and its amendments, issued on 1963, If someone has the conditions of stripping nationality, he must be notified lawfully and given the right to call a lawyer to defend him in front of the court and the final verdict of stripping nationality can be taken by a Bahrain court just after complete the all judicial process which has not even started in the case of Sheikh Issa Qassem.

furthermore, according to the Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality…” also the sentence of stripping citizenship of Sheikh Isa Qassim is unlike the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) knowing that Bahrain’s government has joined this Covenant on 20 September 2006.

For example, paragraph 1 of article 26 says “All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.  In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Finally, it should also be added that after the onset of Bahrain crisis the member states of Security Council has given some recommendations regarding to the Bahrain government mismatching with Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). These violations in Bahrain can be considered as violations of international custom and the principle of good faith between countries.

According to international custom all countries should respect the Commission and international treaties which Bahraini government with stripping nationality from Sheikh Isa Qassim does not and all what they has done is in contrary to Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) (Bassiouni Recommendations) issued on November 23, 2011 (especially the 1722, 1724 and 1725 recommendations).

Therefore, According to Bahraini Criminal law and also international criminal law the last week sentence of stripping nationality from the Bahraini top senior Shia cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, can be considered as an illegal action, and the lack of information on rulers of a country and international conventions by the authorities of this country is a non-excusable pretext. But the questions that arise here are why Al Khalifa are not aware of their country’s law and why they have made such as these fatal mistakes??