Ei-iE

Education International has joined other international organisations in firmly condemning the travel ban imposed on Bahraini teacher unionist Jalila al-Salman as she attempted to attend the Svensson Award ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

On the evening of 13 June, the Vice-President of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association, Jalila al-Salman was banned from leaving Bahrain to participate in the Arthur Svensson ceremony, an annual celebration of the importance of union rights in fostering democracies and social justice. Her passport was also confiscated by the authorities.

Lack of respect for union rights

“The travel ban can only be understood as a direct response to her union activism and commitment to human rights issues,” explains the joint statement by the Norwegian Arthur Svensson Foundation, Education International (EI), and the Norwegian Industrial Union.

The ban means that al-Salman is unable to return to the very ceremony where last year she herself received the prize. The move shows “a lack of respect for basic union rights from the Bahraini government”, the global organisations note. They strongly condemned this attack against the union movement and urged the government of Bahrain to lift the travel ban immediately and fully respect international labour standards.

You can read the joint statement in its entirety here