Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa granted amnesties to over 2,500 prisoners in 2024, including to more than 800 prisoners held unjustly for political participation and peaceful free expression. Yet, human rights defenders and political leaders, including Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, Hassan Mushaima, Dr. Abduljalil al-Singace, and Sheikh Ali Salman, have all remained arbitrarily detained. Furthermore, the Bahraini government has not commuted the death sentences of the 26 individuals who remain on death row.
Closure of Political Space, Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly
Bahraini elections are neither free nor fair, and authorities systematically exclude and repress opposition voices. The Bahraini government has continued imposing restrictions on free expression, association, and assembly, in violation of Bahrain’s international human rights obligations.
Members of Bahrain’s political opposition are still imprisoned for their roles in the 2011 pro-democracy protests, as well as for political activism in recent years. They have faced brutal treatment from Bahraini authorities, including torture and denial of medical care. Human Rights Watch, along with several other human rights organizations, addressed a joint letter on May 30, 2024, to the 56th Session of the Human Rights Council, calling states’ delegates to take a proactive stance and call on the Bahraini government to immediately and unconditionally release all individuals imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights.
Bahrain’s “political isolation laws,” introduced in 2018, barred former members of the country’s opposition parties from running for parliament or sitting on boards of governors of civil society organizations. These laws also target former prisoners, including those detained due to their political work. Those affected by these laws also routinely experience delays and denials when applying for “Good Conduct Certificates,” which Bahraini citizens and residents need in order to apply for employment, university admission, or even to join a sports or social club.
No independent media have operated in Bahrain since the Information Affairs Ministry suspended Al Wasat, the country’s only independent newspaper, in 2017. Foreign journalists rarely have access to Bahrain, and international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have routinely been denied access.
Death Penalty
Despite the large number of amnesties the Bahraini government granted in 2024, they did not commute the death sentences of the 26 individuals who remain on death row with their appeals exhausted. Since 2017, Bahrain has executed six people. Human Rights Watch has found that Bahraini courts have convicted and sentenced defendants to death following manifestly unfair trials, based solely or primarily on confessions allegedly coerced through torture and ill-treatment.
Prison Conditions
After the death of Hussein Khalil Ibrahim in Bahrain’s Jau prison on March 25, 2024, prisoners started a strike to protest abysmal conditions and demand more access to healthcare services. Authorities responded harshly, depriving prisoners of breakfast and dinner, and cutting off air-conditioning, exposing prisoners to extreme heat at a time when temperatures exceeded 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). While prison authorities have negotiated with protesting prisoners and addressed abuse against them in some cases, many prisoners still do not have access to electricity, and prison authorities continue to deny detainees adequate access to healthcare according to BIRD.
Children’s Rights
Bahraini authorities continued detaining children under 18 and subjecting them to ill-treatment in detention due to their participation in public protests. Between March and September 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed several children who were previously exposed to torture and ill-treatment in detention and during interrogation. Some children reported difficulties continuing their education in prison or accessing medical services. Authorities in Bahrain have sentenced children to up to 40 years detention, in addition to fines for charges of protesting and disturbing public security, and burning cars and setting fires, among other charges.
As of December 15, 2023, authorities in Bahrain had arrested and harassed at least 25 children for their participation in pro-Palestine protests throughout the country, according to Human Rights Watch and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) research.
The Rights of Women and Girls
Women are required to obey their husbands and not leave home without a “legitimate excuse,” under Bahrain's Unified 2017 Family Law. Women and girls can lose their rights to spousal maintenance (nafaqa) from their husbands if deemed disobedient or recalcitrant by a court. Bahraini family law (article 20) allows marriage of girls at age of 16 and even before if they got the permission of a Sharia court.
A woman also cannot act as her child’s guardian, even if her child’s father has passed away or following a divorce in which a court orders that her child reside primarily with her. The 1963 Citizenship Act prohibits women and girls from passing on their nationality to their children if they have a non-Bahraini father. Women face difficulty obtaining passports for their children, particularly when the child’s father is abroad.
In February, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published findings that included concern about the “shrinking space for women human rights defenders and reports of reprisals against them, including intimidation, harassment, threats, physical abuse, sexual violence, travel bans, and arbitrary detention.”
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Although no law explicitly criminalizes same-sex relations, authorities have used vague penal code provisions against “indecency” and “immorality” to target sexual and gender minorities.
Migrant Workers’ Rights
Bahrain continues to enforce the kafala (sponsorship) system that ties migrant workers’ visas to their employers, meaning if they leave their employer without their employer’s consent, they lose their residency status and can face arrest, fines, and deportation for “absconding.”
Bahrain’s Labor Law includes domestic workers, most of whom are women, but excludes them from key protections, such as weekly rest days, overtime, paid sick leave, and limits on working hours. Bahrain only requires a minimum wage for Bahraini nationals in the public sector. While Bahraini authorities launched their final phase of the Wage Protection System (WPS) in 2022, which requires all private sector workers to receive their wages through bank transfers, enrollment rates have been low, and unpaid wages remain a problem. Domestic workers are still not included in the WPS.
Since March 2024, Bahrain's General Authority for the Social Insurance Organization started collecting end-of-service contributions from employers to disburse to migrant workers instead of employers directly paying a lump-sum amount to workers upon the end of contracts. While a positive step that could address the non-payment of end-of-service benefits, the real test is in its effective implementation.
The 2024 Bahraini Cabinet decision to extend summer midday bans from two months to three months starting 2025 brings Bahrain’s midday ban policy on par with its peers in the Gulf Cooperation Council, but remains insufficient in effectively protecting workers.
Online Surveillance and Censorship
Bahraini authorities continued to block websites and forced the removal of online content, particularly social media posts criticizing the government. While social media remains a key space for activism and dissent, self-censorship is high due to the fear of online surveillance and intimidation from authorities.
On December 17, 2023, Bahraini authorities arrested opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif for a post on X (formerly Twitter) stating “his opposition to the normalization of his country with Israel and strongly rejected its participation in the American coalition against Houthis in Yemen,” according to Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB).
Bahrain has purchased and used commercial spyware, including NSO Group’s Pegasus, to target government critics and human rights defenders. In July 2024, Bahrain appealed a ruling in a spyware case brought by two UK-Bahraini activists, Saeed Shehabi and Moosa Mohammed, before a UK High Court. The activists allege that Bahrain targeted their computers with surveillance software called FinSpy in September 2011.