Bahrain’s 2022 parliamentary elections, held in November, were neither free nor fair. All members of dissolved political parties were barred from standing in elections. Authorities also attempted to restrict former opposition members from participating in civil society organizations. Independent media has been banned since 2017.
Twenty-six Bahrainis remain on death row, including at least eight who were convicted and sentenced in manifestly unfair trials that were based primarily, or in some cases entirely, on coerced confessions.
Prominent opposition leaders and human rights defenders, including Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Abdeljalil Al-Singaseh, remained imprisoned without adequate medical care, and authorities failed to hold officials accountable for torture and ill-treatment in their detention.
Closure of political space and freedom of association
Bahrain’s November 2022 parliamentary and municipal elections took place amid severe restrictions on political and civil rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly.
The Political Isolation Law, passed in June 2018, explicitly bars members of dissolved political parties from running for parliament or serving on the boards of directors of civil society organizations. The law also bars anyone previously convicted of a serious crime, even if they have been pardoned or convicted of egregious or assembly-related offenses, or anyone previously deemed to have “disrupted” Bahrain’s constitutional life. In 2016 and 2017, Bahrain’s judiciary dissolved the country’s two main opposition parties, Al Wifaq and Wad.
On January 31, 2022, the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), one of Bahrain’s oldest human rights organizations, learned that three candidates who were set to run in elections for its board of directors – its Secretary-General Abdul Jalil Yousef, Issa Ebrahim and Mohsin Matar – were barred from the board under the Political Isolation Law. All three were former members of Bahrain’s now-disbanded Association for National Democratic Action (Wad).
The government also expanded the practice of restricting economic opportunities for former opposition members and political prisoners by routinely delaying or refusing to issue “good conduct certificates,” documents required by Bahraini citizens and residents to apply for jobs and universities, and even to join sports and social clubs.
Death Penalty
Bahraini courts have convicted and sentenced defendants to death after demonstrably unfair trials based solely or primarily on confessions allegedly coerced through torture and other ill-treatment.
Bahrain has executed six people since 2017, and as of June 2022, 26 remain on death row pending appeal. Human Rights Watch and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) reviewed the cases of eight men facing the death penalty, based primarily on trial records and other official documents. The defendants were convicted and sentenced after manifestly unfair trials that were based primarily, or in some cases exclusively, on coerced confessions. The trial and appeals courts in these cases dismissed credible allegations of torture during interrogations, relied on documents obtained in secret, and denied or failed to protect fundamental rights to a fair trial and due process, such as the right to counsel during interrogations and the right to cross-examination of prosecution witnesses. Bahraini authorities also violated their obligations to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment.
Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly
Thirteen prominent opposition leaders remain imprisoned for more than a decade for their role in the 2011 pro-democracy movement. They include Hassan Mushaimah, leader of the unrecognized opposition group Al-Haq, opposition leader Abdulwahab Hussein, prominent human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and Al-Haq spokesman Abdeljalil Al-Singaseh. All four are serving life sentences after apparently unfair trials.
Bahrain has had no independent media presence since the Ministry of Information suspended the country’s only independent newspaper, Al-Wasat, in 2017. Foreign journalists have little access to the country, and Human Rights Watch and other international human rights groups are routinely denied entry.
Security forces and prisons
Authorities continue to deny proper medical care to prisoners in Bahrain, causing unnecessary suffering and endangering the health of prisoners with chronic illnesses. In May prison authorities failed to respond adequately to a tuberculosis outbreak in Jau Prison. Two prisoners with tuberculosis symptoms were left by prison authorities for more than a week. Prison authorities failed to provide hospital treatment for prisoner Ahmed Jaber for 11 months. Jaber fell ill in prison in April 2021 but was not transferred to a hospital until March 2022.
Abdeljalil Al Shinghaseh began his hunger strike in July 2021 and continued it throughout 2022. In 2022, Bahraini authorities delayed or denied the delivery of multiple necessary medicines to Al Shinghaseh, including medications and eye drops necessary for his nervous system and bodily functions. Abdulhadi Al Khawaja has not received adequate medical care since February 2022, when he shouted slogans of solidarity with Palestinians in the prison yard.
Authorities have not been able to credibly investigate and prosecute officials and police suspected of committing serious violations, including torture, since the 2011 protests.
Children’s rights
Bahraini authorities summoned and arrested six boys, ages 14 and 15, in December 2021 and January 2022 and arbitrarily detained them in an orphanage in the Seef district. The authorities did not provide the boys or their families with written justification for their detention, and the boys only learned of their legal basis in an official statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office in February accusing them of throwing Molotov cocktails. The authorities also denied the parents’ requests to be present at or meet their sons’ interrogations. The boys’ alleged crimes appear to have occurred in December 2020 or January 2021, when the boys were 13 and 14 years old.
Bahrain’s 2021 Child Restorative Justice Law sets the age of criminal responsibility at 15 but allows authorities to “commit a child to a social welfare institution” on a renewable weekly basis “according to the circumstances.” The law does not guarantee children access to a lawyer or parents during interrogation and stipulates that children who take part in unauthorized protests may be detained.
Online Surveillance and Censorship
The Bahraini government continued to use NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to target Bahraini activists and human rights defenders. In February 2022, a joint investigation by Redline4Gulf, Amnesty International, and Citizen Lab found that critics of the Bahraini government, including prominent Bahraini lawyer Mohammed Al Tajer, mental health counselor Dr. Sharifa Siwar, and online journalists, were targeted with the spyware between June and September 2021.
For more than a decade, Bahrain has purchased spyware that targets government critics and human rights defenders.
Migrant Workers
In Bahrain, the kafala (sponsorship) system that ties migrant workers’ visas to their employers remains in place, and those who leave their employers without their employer’s consent lose their residency status and may be arrested, fined, and deported for “absconding.” In 2009, Bahrain allowed migrant workers to terminate their employment contracts after one year with their first employer by giving the employer at least 30 days’ reasonable notice. However, in January 2022, parliament voted to extend this to two years. Workers are also required to pay for their own two-year work permits, which is too much of a burden for many and is therefore rarely used.
Bahrain’s labour law includes domestic workers but excludes them from protections such as weekly holidays, minimum wages and limits on working hours.
Women’s Rights, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation
Although Bahrain passed a unified family law in July 2017, discrimination continues, with women not given equal rights to marriage, divorce and inheritance. Women are expected to obey their husbands, who are the heads of the household. The 1963 nationality law prohibits women from granting citizenship to children whose fathers are not Bahraini.
While there are no laws that explicitly criminalize same-sex relations, authorities have used vague criminal code provisions banning “indecency” and “immorality” to target sexual and gender minorities.
In December 2018, Bahrain amended its labor law to prohibit discrimination based on sex, origin, language and creed, as well as sexual harassment in the workplace. However, the law does not mention sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or age.
Key international actors
In July, U.S. President Joe Biden met with Bahrain’s King Hamad in Jeddah and emphasized “the United States’ appreciation for its long-standing strategic partnership with Bahrain, including hosting the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/5th Fleet.”
The UK government, through the Gulf Strategic Fund (GSF), is funding a Bahrain-led reform and capacity-building programme on gross human rights violations. The GSF has supported the Bahraini Ministry of Interior, the Special Investigative Unit and other security agencies implicated in the abuses of at least eight men currently on death row.
The European Union’s joint statement on partnership with the Gulf States did not highlight Bahrain’s poor human rights record, nor did it attempt to link developments in bilateral relations to specific human rights standards.
Serbia extradited a Bahraini opposition political activist to Bahrain on January 24, despite an explicit order from the European Court of Human Rights banning the extradition until more information was available. Bahraini authorities had previously tortured and ill-treated the opposition activist, Ahmed Jaffer Mohammed, 48. Serbia began extradition proceedings after the international police agency Interpol issued a Red Notice at Bahrain’s request.
