British Course at Bahrain’s Academy Pushed to End by UK MPs
The Bahrain-UK relations have crossed a successful milestone of more than 200 years. However, the severe human rights violations by Manama authorities have frequently prompted the calls for the United Kingdom to pull back all its support for the Gulf nation.
Recently, another British link with Bahrain was criticized, citing a loophole in human rights. On February 5, the UK Members of Parliament urged the University of Huddersfield to discontinue its master’s course running in a police academy of Bahrain.
They highlighted that the building of Royal Academy of Policing, where the university runs an MSc in security science, was being used to torture a number of political dissidents. The course was inaugurated as a part of Bahrain-UK relations in April 2018 by Prince Andrew, the then-chancellor of the university.
In a letter to the vice-chancellor of Huddersfield, Bob Cryan, forty cross-party MPs wrote that by continuing the course for officers in Bahrain’s academy, the university was risking its reputation. Led by Ian Blackford, the MPs also said that Huddersfield could be questioned for an “indirect implication in human rights abuse”.
However, the university said that aligned with the British government policy, the course, which includes modules on forensics and terrorism, will bring about a positive reform in Bahrain. A Liberal Democrat who signed the letter, Lord Scriven said that the university couldn’t provide any evidence to its claims of improvements.
While the university and other such links continue to maintain the mixed bag of Bahrain-UK relations, the individuals, who have been a victim to Manama’s extensive human rights abuse, demand something different.
Based on the testimony of 13 political activists, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) campaign group highlighted instances of abuse and torture. After arresting these individuals for political activism, the Bahraini officers abused them during interrogations at the Royal Academy. Four of them reported sexual abuse, some reported of being electrocuted and some were also beaten to their genitals.
Bahrain’s academy was used by the authorities to torture a physician, who was granted asylum in the UK. Now a doctor at NHS, he was taken to the Royal Academy seven times, along with fellow detainees. He was interrogated, beaten, tortured using electric shocks, and was sexually assaulted.
“The academy is not a place of learning. It is a place of torture and human rights violation. The UK government must put restrictions on a British university training in such a place,” he said.
In past few years, Manama’s human rights situation has deteriorated significantly. The monarchy is known for its severe crackdown against political dissidents and human rights defenders. This has somewhat undermined the assumed strong foundation of the Bahrain-UK relations.
Between 2016 and 2017, Bahrain observed a year of crushing dissidents, where several individuals were harassed, tortured and detained. In its 2017 Human Rights and Democracy Report, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) prioritized Bahrain as a country using severe repressive tactics.
The situation in Bahrain remain unchanged, where any person peacefully voicing out against the regime faces extreme torture and abuse. The recent letter to the Huddersfield University, signed by the MPs, highlighted several such cases. Besides, it might put the Bahrain-UK relations at a risk, as it would also stain the British reputation.
Vice-chancellor of the Huddersfield University reportedly gave a “standard reply” to the MPs. Scriven said, “I would go so far as to say he doesn’t care about what is happening there.”
Will the human rights abuse by Bahrain bring a shift in the British position, or will the UK continue its relations by neglecting the torture and abuse reports by several dissidents?
