Helen Goodman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish a response to the Human Rights Watch report, The Blood of People Who Don’t Cooperate: Continuing Torture and Mistreatment of Detainees in Bahrain, published on 22 November 2015.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are considering the report carefully. The UK Government consistently and unreservedly condemns torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and it is a priority for us to combat it wherever and whenever it occurs. We are aware of ongoing allegations against Ministry of Interior personnel and we have expressed our concerns to the authorities. The Government of Bahrain has previously committed to consider ratifying the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture. The UK strongly supports this and we have been working with the authorities to share best practice on torture prevention measures. We also continue to ask the Government of Bahrain to allow a visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.