Thursday, February 23, 2017

Bahrain's military trials amendment

It’s not like Bahrain’s civilian courts have any legal credibility, but there is a vital principle here, and allowing civilians to be tried in military courts is the final kiss goodbye to any pretense of the rule of law.

Brian Dooley, Director, Human Rights Defenders at Human Rights First, writing here for Huffington Post


Postscript: Human Rights Watch has this informative backgrounder. Excerpt:
International human rights bodies have determined that trials of civilians before military tribunals violate the right to be tried by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal. The Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that interprets the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Bahrain ratified in 2006, has stated that civilians should be tried by military courts only under exceptional circumstances and only under conditions that genuinely afford full due process.

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