Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of prison reform in Bahrain in the last five years.
We welcome the positive steps taken by the Government of Bahrain leading to progress in a number of human rights areas, including reforms to the prison system. This includes the development of Alternative Sentencing legislation (which has benefitted over 5,680 individuals to date), the introduction of an open prison system, the implementation of a new child justice system, and the establishment of specialist human rights oversight bodies. The UK remains committed to supporting reforms in Bahrain and to encouraging the government to meet its human rights commitments.