Last week, leading human rights organisations filed a request for UK sanctions against Bahrain’s Interior Minister, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, under the UK’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020. The request and supporting evidence were submitted to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office by Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors on behalf of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD). The request is also supported by Human Rights First. It seeks targeted financial and travel sanctions against the Interior Minister for his role in serious rights abuses against the Bahraini people.
The request comes as Bahrain marks the 15th anniversary of its 2011 pro-democracy uprising on 14 February. The impact of the Bahraini Government’s brutal crackdown continues to haunt the country, with leading pro-democracy figures remaining jailed since 2011 following sham trials and confessions made under torture.
The NGO coalition is calling for the Interior Minister to be held accountable for his role in serious and systematic human rights violations in Bahrain, including allegations of torture and arbitrary detention of political dissidents and human rights defenders. Documented abuses include physical beatings, the use of torture devices, sexual violence, and rape. The submission sets out evidence of the Minister’s responsibility for widespread abuses carried out by Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior since 2004, encompassing the violent suppression of the 2011 uprising and the years of systematic persecution that followed.
The evidence, which documents a pattern of torture in Bahrain over the last decade, presents a significant test of the UK Government’s commitment to upholding human rights standards, particularly regarding human rights abuses that are linked to close allies of the UK. It comes amid growing concern that the UK’s deepening security cooperation with Bahrain – despite persistent and credible evidence of human rights violations – risks shielding abusive officials and undermining Britain’s own legal and moral obligations.
In October 2025, Bahrain’s Interior Minister visited the UK and met with Durham Constabulary to strengthen police training partnerships. Accompanied by Ambassador Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, he met Chief Constable Rachel Bacon to discuss collaboration in forensics, investigation, and rehabilitation programs. The visit raised concerns regarding the UK Government’s engagement with a ministry accused of systematic torture; by providing police training to General Al Khalifa, the UK risks legitimising the Interior Ministry’s practices.
MPs call for sanctions
At the same time, on 09 February 2026, a group of cross-party MPs tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) supporting the call for sanctions against Bahrain’s Interior Minister and decrying the Government of Bahrain’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists. The MPs decried human rights abuses in Bahrain and called “for the imposition of Magnitsky sanctions against individuals responsible for serious human rights violations, including the Interior Minister, Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa”. They further raised concerns that millions of pounds of UK public funds continue to be spent on technical assistance to Bahrain.
Rights groups calls
Commenting, Khalid Ibrahim, GCHR’s Executive Director, said: “It’s impossible to advance human rights in Bahrain without ending impunity and enforcing accountability for all the massive human rights violations that were committed by perpetrators whose crimes have been well documented by the human rights movement. We always have to remember the plight of our Founding Director Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja who was severely tortured to the level that he needed dozens of medical interventions, yet the perpetrators are not only still free in the streets of Bahrain but some of them were promoted. This culture should be ended and as such we welcome the news of the motion by British MPs to hold the Minister accountable and call on the British government to follow suit and take action.”
Commenting, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, BIRD’s Advocacy Director, stated: “It is hard to mark the 15th anniversary of Bahrain’s pro-democracy uprising without remembering the suffering of thousands of Bahrainis, some of whom continue to languish behind bars after being tortured by Rashid Al Khalifa’s officials at the Interior Ministry in 2011. Under his watch, Bahrainis were murdered under torture while in custody. It is shameful that the red carpet is rolled out for him in Britain while his victims rot in Bahraini jails.”
Commenting, Uzra Zeya, Human Rights First’s President and CEO, said, “Fifteen years after Bahrain’s peaceful pro-democracy protests began, both the U.K. and U.S. governments need to do much more to address the persistence of torture, cruel treatment, and the arbitrary detention of dissidents and human rights defenders in Bahrain’s prisons. These governments must not turn a blind eye to abuses by their close security partner. Targeted sanctions would be an important and long-overdue step toward accountability.”
