Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of Bahrain concerning (1) the Bahrainis who have already been deprived of citizenship, (2) the 260 persons who may lose citizenship following alleged acts of terror, and (3) possible discrimination against members of the Shia Scholars Council and of Al Wefaq party; and whether they have had satisfactory replies.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We condemn all acts of terrorism and support Bahrain’s right to bring to justice those who commit terrorist acts. We also continue to encourage the Government of Bahrain to meets its human rights obligations and honour all conventions to which it is a party – including on citizenship rights. We regularly discuss human rights with the Government of Bahrain – including at the biannual UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group meeting which was most recently held in November 2015. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), most recently raised human rights with his Bahraini counterpart, Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, on 4 February 2016.
We believe that governance is a matter for all political parties in Bahrain. That is why we urge all political parties, including Al Wefaq who boycotted elections in November 2014, to engage constructively in the electoral process.
