Bahrain

The United Nations, the Arab League and the international community in general must intervene to stop the massacre that Bahrain demonstrators and activist are currently suffering, warned this Wednesday the local civil society organizations. The Bahraini opposition considers the Saudi and Emirates military contingents as occupation forces. Eurostep, the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and Social Watch asked the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, to call Bahraini authorities for an immediate end to the violence.

With the exception of Millennium Development Goal 7, relating to the environment, Bahrain has achieved – or is about to achieve – the Millennium Development Goals. However, remaining challenges include eliminating the wide income gaps that generate relative poverty, developing more technology-based education, passing laws to promote women’s empowerment and making information on sexually transmitted diseases more widely available. In terms of the environment, policies are needed to prevent depletion of groundwater sources and stop the destruction of biodiversity due to the growth of the construction sector and the increase in land reclaimed from the sea.
The Bahrain’s economy is growing, along with per capita income. However, along with the increasing numbers of millionaires the middle class is shrinking and the lower class is becoming impoverished. There are increasing confrontations and tension between the impoverished groups and security forces. A strategy to shield society from the negative impacts of globalization is urgently needed.
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