Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Bahrain on the (a) independence and (b) effectiveness of (i) Bahrain's human rights oversight mechanisms, (ii) the National Institution for Human Rights and (iii) the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Foreign Secretary visited Bahrain in October 2024 and met the Foreign Minister. The focus of that visit was de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East, and to meet UK personnel working in the region, underscoring our commitment to regional security and stability.

The UK encourages all countries to uphold international human rights obligations. We recognise a number of positive steps taken by the Government of Bahrain over recent years in a range of human rights and justice areas, some of which the UK has directly supported, including the establishment of some of these independent human rights oversight bodies, such as the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ministry Of Interior Ombudsman, and the Prisoner and Detainee Rights Commission (PDRC), and helped build the capacity of the National Institute for Human Rights (NIHR).