Human rights in Bahrain

That this House is concerned by continuing serious human rights violations in Bahrain, including the ongoing arbitrary detention and inhumane treatment of prisoners of conscience, including Abduljalil al-Singace, Hassan Mushaima, Abdulwahab Hussain, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Sheikh Ali Salman; notes that Freedom House in its 2021 report rated Bahrain as not free and that Bahrain is ranked 150 out of 167 countries in The Economist’s 2020 Global Democracy Index and 168 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index 2021; urges the Bahraini Government to release all prisoners of conscience, enable civil society representatives and human rights defenders to operate freely, permit genuine political opposition and independent media, and end the use of the death penalty; further urges the Bahraini Government to initiate a substantive and inclusive in-country dialogue on political and constitutional reform and to cooperate with human rights organisations and experts, including from the UN, to allow for, inter alia, an independent assessment of prison conditions and its reform agenda; and calls on the Government to review its funding to and other agreements with Bahrain and to meet human rights defenders and organisations, civil society representatives and non-violent opposition from Bahrain, as well as to take action to hold Bahraini officials responsible for serious human rights violations to account.