Workshop on "Citizenship"

The Bahrain Society for Human Rights organized a workshop on 'Citizenship and Human Rights' On 28-30 December 2008. The workshop witnessed a considerable participation from human rights activists including Haythem Al Manaa, Majdi Abu Ghazala and Suaad Al Qudsi. Mr. Manaa discussed the emergence of the concept of citizenship and its evolution through the ages since the Roman. He then explained the Islamic view on the subject and its privileging of mankind, highlighting the relationship between the concept of citizenship, religious ideology in Arab history and the practical formation of the authority. According to Manaa, this has confined the idea of citizenship to relativity and ambiguity, isolated from both religious and man-made texts.

In their joint paper, Abu Ghazala and Al Qudsi discussed aspects related to human rights and legal equality, as well as the relationship between citizenship, social and political issues and political participation. Finally, they discussed the issue of national belonging and the links formed on the basis of the moral.