Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the state of democracy and human rights in Bahrain.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We welcome the progress made by Bahrain on their reform programme particularly in the areas of youth justice, the establishment and increasing effectiveness of the Ombudsman’s office, the Prisoner and Detainees’ Rights Commission and the reformed National Institute of Human Rights. Some challenges remain and we regularly discuss human rights and reform with the Government of Bahrain. I did so most recently when I met the Bahraini Ambassador to the UK, Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, on 8 March 2016.