Event of the Week (Saturday, September 12, 2026): How Will the Al Khalifa Manage Their Battle at the Human Rights Council?
The new session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva began on September 7. The Al Khalifa government has begun preparing a series of interventions and activities during the session, with the aim of whitewashing the regime’s image by exploiting the occasion to promote the official narrative regarding the repercussions of the war on Iran.
On September 9, the Al Khalifa regime’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Abdullah Abdul Latif Abdullah, delivered a speech at the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council on behalf of the Gulf regimes, as part of the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Although the speech focused on opposition to Zionist settlement and sought to project a commitment to peaceful solutions and de-escalation, the Bahraini representative began by addressing what he described as Iranian attacks against the Gulf states and accusing Iran of threatening international navigation, without making even the slightest reference to the US-Zionist aggression or its crimes against the Iranian people.
Observers say that the regime will adopt this approach throughout the 30-day session in an effort to conceal the widespread violations it has committed against Shiite citizens in the context of the aggression against Iran, particularly with regard to religious persecution.
The Al Khalifa Delegation Is Relying on Fabricated Reports to Conceal the “Ethnic Cleansing” of Shiites
Opposition human rights organizations have announced that they will deliver interventions before the Human Rights Council focusing on systematic violations in Bahrain, particularly those committed following the recent war on Iran and the resulting widespread crackdown and restrictions on civil and religious freedoms.
The Al Khalifa regime is preparing to fight this battle through an “official delegation” representing government and pro-government institutions, relying on the promotion of a fabricated report prepared by the government-run human rights institution, whose members are appointed by the “tyrant” Hamad. The report was published last July under the title, “Documentation of Violations Resulting from the Iranian Aggression against Bahrain and Its Impact on the Enjoyment of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”
The regime intends to make this report the main basis of the confrontation it will wage against the activities of civil society organizations in Geneva, in an effort to conceal the details of the crime of ethnic cleansing against Bahrain’s Shiite population and the mass trials targeting senior religious scholars.
This is particularly significant given official statements by Hamad and his Interior Minister, Rashid, which, according to opposition groups, reveal their leadership of this crime and their use of terminology that confirms its genocidal nature.
