Kingdom of Bahrain

With the support of the UN Country Team, International Youth Day was marked in the Kingdom of Bahrain by the Supreme Council for Women, the General Organization for Youth and Sports, and the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resource, Environment and Wildlife.
Government officials and representatives of the UN urged the 100 or so participating youths to take action in combating local and global climate change issues. The message of the Secretary General was delivered by Mr. Sayed Aqa, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Bahrain, during the opening of the meeting. The 3-day event included presentations, lectures, and workshops and included the participation of UN resident agencies.

A two-day National Conference on Mainstreaming Gender in Development was held in Bahrain on June 9 - 10, 2008. The Conference, organized by the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, aimed towards promoting inclusive development, enhancing planning and policy-making abilities and to emerge with practical recommendations towards the empowerment of Bahraini women.
Women hold the keys, alongside men, to the country's development, said Her Highness Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Women. Enabling Bahraini women is essential in the development of the country, she said at the opening of the conference. The empowerment of women is neither a luxury nor an option but an urgent necessity,
"The SCW is meeting its national responsibility in establishing a base for this initiative, by providing all the support to create a framework and implementation system," said Shaikha Sabeeka. "This will allow certain bodies in the country, especially the Parliament and the Shura Council, to work towards meeting women's needs in legislation, systems, programmes and work plans".
Over 200 representatives from government ministries, the Parliament, the Shura Council, civil societies, the private sector, media, religious scholars and youth societies as well as other regional and international organizations participated in the Conference. International organizations participating in the Conference included the Arab Woman's Organisation, UNIFEM, AGFUND, UNDP, ESCWA, United Nations Development Fund for Women, Al Hariri Organisation from Lebanon, the UAE General Women's Union and the National Council for Women in Egypt. As an outcome of the Conference, the SCW seeks to mobilise support of local, regional and international partners to back various programmes technically and financially.
UN Assistant Secretary General and Regional Director of the United Nations Development Programme, Amat Al Alim Alsoswa, presented a paper on the terminology of social mainstreaming in international agreements and accords. She also highlighted Arab commitments to ensure equal gender partnership in their plans and policies and emphasized on the need to exploit human and financial resources to help men and women take decisions voluntarily, confidently and with dignity.
The participants called on the authorities concerned to provide comprehensive and beneficial information and statistics regarding women and to enhance the capabilities of ministry employees and officials in dealing with the issue of gender equality.
As an outcome of the Conference, a recommendation was made to promote and support the role of women in society as well as to make available the necessary resources to set up policies in support of the role of women. Other recommendations included a study and review of the role of official organizations in Bahrain to identify their ability to meet the needs of women as well as building their capacity in integrating the national plan to promote the role of women in their programmes.
The SCW called upon the government and the Economic Development Board to draw up a clear national plan, which will guarantee a successful transformation for Bahrain. "I hope that this conference will lead us to a just co-operation that will begin to preserve and provide rights and stability to women and children, in addition to their continuous role in supporting men," said Shaikha Sabee.

In 2005, recognizing the importance of addressing disaster risk reduction as a global issue, 168 member states met in Kobe, Japan, and endorsed the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). The HFA calls on the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) to prepare periodic reviews of progress and to identify gaps in implementation. In this context, the ISDR Secretariat will coordinate the preparation of a major global assessment report to be launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2009.
In a press conference held on June 8th, 2008, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa pledged the support of the Government of Bahrain,to the 2009 ISDR Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction by contributing $1 million (BD 378,000). The Report will be launched in Bahrain next year and aims to focus media and political attention to the issue of disaster risk. UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Arab States Director Amat Al Alim Alsoswa stated that “Bahrain’s contribution will provide a powerful stimulus to global efforts to reduce disaster risk.” Ms. Alsoswa also stressed that the ISDR and UN are confident that the contribution from Bahrain will help consolidate political and economic support and commitment to disaster risk reduction throughout the world.

The UN Human Rights Council will formally endorse Bahrain’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva today, June 8th, 2008. The Bahrain UPR Report was prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in consultation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and submitted to the Council in February this year. Bahrain’s UPR Report was reviewed on April 7th and Bahrain’s election to the Council was welcomed due to its significant achievements, which were highlighted in the Report.
Heading the delegation, which includes officials and NGO representatives, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Nazar Al Baharna will give a 20 minute presentation in Geneva, which would mark the formal adoption of the UPR. Bahrain’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla declared that Bahrain was considered one of the pioneering countries in the UN’s reform efforts.

A training workshop was held for the UNCT and national counterparts on May 26th to 28th as a follow up step in implementing the Action 2 HRBA strategy. The training sessions were facilitated by Clarence Dias, Human Rights consultant, and Karin Lucke, Human Rights Officer, OHCHR.
Action 2 is a global programme designed to strengthen the capacity of UN country teams to support the efforts of Member States, at their request, in strengthening their national human rights promotion and protection systems. In order to achieve this, adequate national capacity, dedicated resources and expertise are fundamental prerequisites.
As an introduction, the workshop introduced the HRBA and the UN Common Understanding as well as briefly revisited Bahrain’s Country Programme Action Plan. This was followed by a presentation on applying HRBA in situational analysis as well as to monitoring of implementation and to assessing results. The workshop adopted a participatory approach where participants worked in small groups on exercises relevant to Bahrain, giving practical experience. Participants in the workshop included UNCT members as well as representatives from key government ministries and authorities.
The HRBA workshop coincided with the launch of Bahrain’s Draft Action Plan on UPR implementation which outlines the road by which Bahrain intends to honor its voluntary pledges and commitments to the Human Rights Council. A brief on the process was provided to participants of the workshop as well as key areas of the Plan. The Action Plan further confirmed the importance of building national capacity in HRBA in development programming.