For over 15 years, Danish human rights defender Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Swedish activist Mohamed Habib al-Muqdad have been languishing in Bahrain\u2019s prisons, as their governments and the European Union (EU) have failed to secure their release from unjust detention. As the EU launched\u00a0 negotiations for a \u201cStrategic Partnership Agreement\u201d with Bahrain in July, it should use them to ensure that al-Khawaja, al-Muqdad and others unjustly jailed can finally be free and reunite with their families. \u00a0
Al-Khawaja and al-Muqdad have been jailed since the Bahraini government brutally cracked down on the 2011 \u201cArab spring\u201d mass protests. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2012 found al-Khawaja\u2019s detention to be arbitrary and urged his release. He\u2019s among the hundreds the repressive Gulf government has unjustly jailed for exercising peaceful expression of dissent. Authorities have also\u00a0intensified their repression in recent months, carrying out\u00a0widespread arrests of people exercising their freedom of expression, and\u00a0stripping dozens of Bahrainis of nationality, including children.\u00a0
Although Bahrain\u2019s king has issued mass pardons, including for prisoners held on political grounds, the two EU citizens have always been kept off of those lists, along with other prominent jailed critics, such as opposition leaders\u00a0Hassan Mushaima and\u00a0Sheikh Ali Salman, and academic Abduljalil al-Singace.\u00a0
But instead of resorting to more robust diplomatic measures or targeted sanctions, the EU insisted on\u00a0\u201csilent diplomacy\u201d with Bahrain, relegating concerns to fruitless human rights dialogues and to ineffective mentions of the country at the UN Human Rights Council. Despite Bahrain\u2019s abysmal human rights record, the EU has chosen it as the first Gulf country to launch partnership negotiations with.
The likely inclusion of \u201chuman rights clauses\u201d and formalization of the human rights dialogue in the agreement will mean little if they do not have robust measures for their enforcement. The EU, Denmark, Sweden and all other EU member states should make clear that tangible human rights steps are expected for partnership negotiations to progress, including the release of al-Khawaja, al-Muqdad and others jailed for peaceful dissent.
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