Background
Bahrain released 839 prisoners in two royal pardons on 27 March and 5 June. However, the pardons excluded prisoners detained for political reasons, of whom an estimated 322 remained arbitrarily detained, including prominent human rights defenders Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Abduljalil Al-Singace.
Freedom of expression and association
At least 132 individuals including 35 children were arrested or interrogated for expression-related charges, according to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
On 28 February, police summoned human rights defender Ali Al-Hajee for investigation over social media posts that exposed human rights abuses against people detained for political reasons in Bahrain. He was interrogated without the presence of his lawyer and was arbitrarily detained for 11 days pending investigation. He was charged with “spreading false news using social media” and released on 10 March. Ali Al-Hajee had already served a 10-year prison sentence for his involvement in peaceful protests in Bahrain and had been released in June 2023.
The authorities continued to severely restrict freedom of association, including through the 2018 “civil and political isolation laws” which explicitly ban opposition party members from fully participating in political and civil life, including by barring them from running for elections or taking leadership positions in civil society organizations.
Freedom of peaceful assembly
The authorities continued to restrict the right to freedom of peaceful assembly by arresting and prosecuting peaceful demonstrators.
Authorities continued to arbitrarily detain 10 leaders of mass anti-government protests that took place in 2011, including prisoners of conscience.
Detainees’ rights
Authorities maintained their confiscation of the writings of human rights defender Abduljalil Al-Singace, imprisoned since 2011 for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. In response, he continued his solid-food hunger strike, begun on 8 July 2021, which significantly weakened his health. Throughout his hunger strike, he had been denied adequate medical care, according to the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy.
At least 26 individuals remained on death row and at risk of imminent execution, 11 of whom were convicted in previous years following manifestly unfair trials that relied solely or primarily on “confessions” allegedly extracted under torture.1
Women’s rights
Bahrain advanced 12 places in the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report but still ranked 104th out of 148 countries. Women continued to face discrimination under the Unified 2017 Family Law. In addition, the 1963 Citizenship Act prohibited women from passing on their nationality to their children if the father is not a Bahraini national.
Right to a healthy environment
Despite the country’s 2024 commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2035 and to achieve net zero by 2060, Bahrain expanded its oil and gas production, including through a new drilling agreement for gas exploration and the expansion of capacity at Sitra oil refinery.
