- On July 3, 2023, Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa met with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. In a statement released after the meeting, 10 Downing Street made no mention of human rights despite a letter sent by 14 parliamentarians urging the Prime Minister to raise human rights concerns when meeting with the Bahraini Crown Prince.
- The UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding of “Strategic Investment and Collaboration Partnership” with Bahrain to deliver £1 billion investment into the UK economy through the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.
- Despite concerns highlighted by MPs about the “continued detention of an estimated 1,200 political prisoners [and] reports of mistreatment and denial of medical treatment of some political prisoners,” the UK government provided Bahrain’s Crown Prince with the highest levels of access.
- Later that day, the Crown Prince of Bahrain attended a reception where he was greeted by Former Prime Minister Theresa May, and Former Chancellors Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadhim Zahawi and Philip Hammond. Lord Polak, Lord Soames, Former Shadow Minister Khalid Mahmood, Liam Fox MP and Former Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt were also in attendance.
- On his second day in the UK, July 4, 2023, Bahrain’s Crown Prince met with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Prince William.
- The UK government has omitted human rights from its ongoing trade negotiations with the Gulf states, including Bahrain. It also rejected International Trade Committee recommendations calling on the government to ensure any trade deal does not undermine UK values on human rights.
- The timing of these visits coincides with the upcoming two-year anniversary of Bahraini human rights activist Dr Al-Singace’s hunger strike without solid food in protest of Bahraini authorities confiscating his academic manuscripts.
- The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) calls on the UK Government to ensure that such high-level access to UK officials and future negotiations on any trade deals be conditioned on the release of the political prisoners named above and with concrete steps taken to abolish the use of the death penalty.
Commenting, Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei, advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD): “The UK government is sending the message that however horrific your human rights records or however many political prisoners you put behind bars, cash gives you access to the most senior politicians in the country.”
Reminding the Foreign Secretary of his commitments made in the Guardian, Vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf, Lord Scriven, commented:
“James Cleverly clearly is not upholding the standards he says are important to him. We now see pictures of him smiling with Bahrain’s Prime Minister whose country is mired in human rights abuses, when only six months ago Cleverly indicated that dictators around the world would fear the U.K. What do they have to fear when they are offered unlimited access to senior members of the government and an ever-closening relationship in spite of continued human rights abuses.”
