Letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , Ref: Bahrain Peace Dialogue 

Mr. Ban Ki-moon

Secretary-General

United Nations

New York, NY 10017

 Dear Secretary-General,

Your Excellency, the Secretary General of the United Nations,

At Shia Rights Watch (SRW), we, researchers, activists, and human rights defenders, who are following the human rights violations in Bahrain, believe it is essential for the UN to oversee the upcoming peace dialogue in Bahrain.

This dialogue is hoped to resolve issues involving the security and well-being of more than a million people, as well as the stability of a nation. Therefore, all necessary actions must be taken so both parties reach satisfactory results.

We wish to draw your attention to the importance of the UN involvement this time around since King Hamad has repeatedly failed to implement reforms. He did not respect his promises on major changes after the report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) exposed numbers of violations. Unfortunately, still news and reports reveal that number of killings and violations have increased since the BICI report. Ironically, those who were responsible for the violations kept their jobs and in some cases awarded greater positions. As a result, it is crucial that the UN gets involved and oversees this upcoming dialogue and finds ways to reach peace in this country.

We do appreciate the United Nations’ commitment toward stability of Bahrain. There is no doubt that the supervision of the United Nations can be a great relief for the defenseless Bahrainis. We cannot stress enough how superintending this dialogue can save lives of thousands of suppressed people of Bahrain.

SRW hopes the involvement of the UN results in actual and truthful implementations of the peace talk and end human rights violations in this country.

Sincerely,

Mustafa Akhwand

Director of Shia Rights Watch