Helen Hayes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations the Government has made to the government of Bahrain on reports of human rights abuses in that country.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are concerned by recent developments in Bahrain, and have responded robustly in public and private. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Johnson) issued a statement on 17 July expressing concerns about the Bahraini High Administrative Court’s decision to dissolve the main Bahraini Shia opposition political society Al Wefaq. In addition, we have issued two further statements on 22 and 15 June expressing concerns about the nationality of Bahraini Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim being revoked, the suspension of Al Wefaq, the apparent prevention of human rights activists travelling to Geneva and the re-arrest of Nabeel Rajab. We regularly discuss human rights concerns and reform efforts with the Government of Bahrain, I did so during the biannual UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group meeting in Bahrain on 2 June.