15th anniversary of the Bahrain pro-democracy uprising
Tabled 9 February 2026 by John McDonnell
That this House notes the 15th anniversary of Bahrain’s 2011 uprising, when widespread protests demanding democratic change and opposing structural inequality, corruption and repression, and the lack of meaningful political representation were met with state violence and repression, resulting in dozens of deaths and the arrest and torture of hundreds, some of whom remain imprisoned; further notes that leading political figures and human rights activists imprisoned since that period are now elderly and in poor health, including Abduljalil Al-Singace, Hassan Mushaima, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Abdulwahab Hussain, and calls for their immediate release; decries that Bahrain currently holds 19 prisoners on death row, 18 of whom are at imminent risk of execution, with eleven alleging torture, including Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa; calls for the imposition of Magnitsky sanctions against individuals responsible for serious human rights violations, including the Interior Minister, Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa; raises concern that millions of pounds of public funds continue to be spent on technical assistance to Bahrain through the Gulf Strategy Fund, despite evidence that it has supported institutions, including the Ministry of Interior and the Ombudsman, which have been implicated in torture, the death penalty, and the whitewashing of abuses; condemns Bahrain’s routine use of torture, denial of medical care to political prisoners, and the perpetuation of a climate of impunity; and further decries Bahrain’s use of transnational repression, including citizenship revocation and the surveillance of dissidents in the UK.