Whereas the Kingdom of Bahrain is a party to several
international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, adopted December 16, 1966, and entered into force
March 23, 1976, and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, done at New York December 10, 1984;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain had made several notable
human rights reforms during the 2000s;
Whereas, despite those reforms, significant human rights
concerns remained in early 2011, including the alleged mistreatment of detained
persons and the discrimination against certain Bahraini citizens in the
political, economic, and professional spheres of Bahrain;
Whereas this discrimination has included the banning of
particular religious groups from holding specific government positions,
including the military and security services, without reasonable
justification;
Whereas hundreds of thousands of protesters in the Kingdom
of Bahrain have significantly intensified their calls for government reform and
respect for human rights starting in February 2011;
Whereas independent observers, including the Department of
State, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, Amnesty International, and
Freedom House, found that the majority of protesters have been peaceful in
their demands, and that acts of violence by protesters have been rare;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has systematically
suppressed the protests through a wide range of acts constituting serious and
grave violations of human rights;
Whereas, according to the Project of Middle East
Democracy, at least 32 people have been killed by the Government of Bahrain’s
security forces since February 2011;
Whereas at least three deaths occurred while the
individuals were in detention, according to the Ministry of Interior of the
Government of Bahrain;
Whereas there have been credible reports from Human Rights
Watch, Human Rights First, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Bahrain Center
for Human Rights of severe mistreatment of detainees, including acts rising to
the level of torture;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has investigated and
prosecuted individuals who were only peacefully exercising their rights to
freedom of expression, political opinion, and assembly;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has continued to
prosecute civilians, including medical professionals, in military-security
courts;
Whereas cases continued to be tried in the
military-security courts despite promises by the Government of Bahrain to
transfer those cases to civilian venues;
Whereas the military-security courts' procedures and
actions severely limited due process rights or complied with due process
formally rather than substantively;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain’s recent promises to
have civilian courts hear the appeals from military-security courts are
insufficient to rectify the due process violations that occurred at the trial
stage;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has moved quickly to
prosecute and sentence political opponents to lengthy prison terms, while at
the same time slowly investigating, or failing to investigate at all,
government and security officials who appear to have committed or assisted in
human rights violations against political opponents;
Whereas Physicians for Human Rights has documented that
the Government of Bahrain's security forces have targeted medical personnel by
abducting medical workers, abusing patients, intimidating wounded protesters
from accessing medical treatment, and sentencing medical professionals to
lengthy prison terms in the military-security courts for protesting the
government's interference in treating injured protesters;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has destroyed more than
40 Shi’a mosques and religious sites throughout Bahrain since February
2011;
Whereas Bahrain’s legislative lower house, the Council of
Representatives (Majlis an-nuwab) is constituted of disproportionately drawn
districts that violates the principle of equal suffrage for Bahraini citizens,
particularly the Shi’a community;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain employed tactics of
retribution against perceived political opponents, dismissing more than 2,500
workers, academics, medics, and other professionals from their places of
employment;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has violated
international labor standards through the dismissals of the aforementioned
citizens;
Whereas the Department of Labor has received an official
complaint regarding the failure of the Government of Bahrain to live up to its
commitments with respect to workers’ rights under its Free Trade Agreement with
the United States;
Whereas the state-run media of Bahrain have gone beyond
legitimate criticism of political opponents towards explicitly and implicitly
threatening the physical safety and integrity of those opponents specifically
and the Shi’a community generally, creating greater animosity amongst the
entire population and making reconciliation of all Bahraini citizens more
difficult;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has expelled
international journalists and stopped issuing visas to journalists on grounds
that do not appear to be justified by legitimate safety or security
concerns;
Whereas the Department of State included Bahrain among a
list of countries necessitating additional human rights scrutiny in a June 15,
2011, submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council;
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has taken limited
positive measures in recent months, including agreeing to allow the
establishment of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) composed
of well-renowned international human rights experts who are authorized to
investigate human rights violations and recommend measures for
accountability;
Whereas the BICI human rights report is due to be
submitted to the Government of Bahrain on October 30, 2011;
Whereas the Department of Defense notified Congress on
September 14, 2011, of a proposed military arms sale to Bahrain worth
approximately $53,000,000;
Whereas the Department of State notified Congress on
September 13, 2011, of a proposed obligation of Foreign Military Funds in the
amount of $15,461,000 for the upgrading and maintenance of certain military
equipment;
Whereas other military allies of the United States,
including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Belgium, have suspended or
limited certain licenses and arms sales to Bahrain since February 2011;
Whereas evidence gathered from protesters by the Bahrain
Center for Human Rights indicated that tear gas canisters used against peaceful
protesters contained markings which showed they were manufactured in the United
States; and
Whereas providing military equipment and provisions for
upgrades to a government that commits human rights violations and that has
undertaken insufficient measures to seek reform and accountability is at odds
with United States foreign policy goals of promoting democracy, human rights,
accountability, and stability: Now, therefore, be it
1.Limitation on certain
proposed sales of defense articles and defense services to the Kingdom of
Bahrain
(a)The
issuance of a letter of offer with respect to each proposed sale of defense
articles and defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain referred to in
subsection (b) is hereby prohibited unless the Secretary of State certifies to
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign
Affairs of the House of Representatives that—
(1)the Government of
Bahrain is conducting good faith investigations and prosecutions of alleged
perpetrators responsible for the killing, torture, arbitrary detention, and
other human rights violations committed since February 2011;
(2)the prosecutions
of alleged perpetrators in paragraph (1) is being carried out in transparent
judicial proceedings conducted in full accordance with Bahrain’s international
legal obligations;
(3)the Government of
Bahrain has ceased all acts of torture and other inhumane treatment in its
detention facilities;
(4)the Government of
Bahrain has released and withdrawn criminal charges against all individuals who
were peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, political
opinion, and assembly;
(5)the Government of
Bahrain is permitting nondiscriminatory medical treatment of the sick and
injured, and is ensuring unhindered access to medical care and treatment for
all patients;
(6)the Government of
Bahrain is protecting all Shi’a mosques and religious sites and is rebuilding
all Shi’a mosques and religious sites destroyed since February 2011;
(7)the Government of
Bahrain has redrawn the districts of the Council of Representatives (Majlis
an-nuwab) in a proportional manner that allots the same number of residents, or
reasonably nearly the same number of residents with minimal variation, for each
district;
(8)the Government of
Bahrain has lifted restrictions on government employment, including in the
military and security forces, based on discriminatory grounds such as religion
and political opinion;
(9)the Government of
Bahrain has reinstated all public and government-invested enterprises’
employees who were dismissed from their workplace for peacefully exercising
their right to freedom of expression, political opinion, and assembly;
(10)the Government
of Bahrain has set standards for private sector compliance covering the
reinstatement of its employees who were dismissed from their workplace for
peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, political opinion,
and assembly;
(11)the Government
of Bahrain is protecting the right of all individuals, including political
opponents of the Government, to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of
expression, political opinion, and assembly without fear of retribution;
(12)the Government
of Bahrain has ceased using the media under its control to threaten the
physical safety and integrity of political opponents and other Bahraini
citizens, particularly those in the Shi’a community;
(13)the Government
of Bahrain is permitting the entry of international journalists to Bahrain
except in extremely exceptional cases where the Government clearly shows with
evidence and in good faith that the entry of an international journalist is a
legitimate safety or security concern;
(14)the Bahrain
Commission of Inquiry (BICI) has submitted its final report to the Government
of Bahrain;
(15)the BICI’s final
report’s factual findings and conclusions are consistent with information known
to the Secretary of State about the human rights violations occurring in
Bahrain since February 2011;
(16)the Government
of Bahrain is undertaking good faith implementation of all recommendations from
the BICI’s final report that address alleged human rights violations by the
Government of Bahrain since February 2011; and
(17)the Government
of Bahrain has undertaken a good faith dialogue among all key stakeholders in
Bahrain which is producing substantive recommendations for genuine reforms that
meet the reasonable democratic aspirations of Bahrain’s citizens and comply
with universal human rights standards.
(b)Proposed sales
of defense articles and defense servicesThe proposed sales of
defense articles and defense services to the Government of Bahrain referred to
in this subsection are those specified in the certifications transmitted to the
Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Relations of the Senate pursuant to section 36(b) of the Arms Export
Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2776(b)) on September 14, 2011 (Transmittal Number
10–71).