Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to reports that children in Bahrain have been arrested and had confessions coerced from them, what assessment they have made of the government of Bahrain's compliance with international (1) human rights law, and (2) standards in the treatment of detained children.

We are following recent juvenile detention cases in Bahrain, which are pending legal proceedings, and will continue to monitor them and raise them if/when appropriate. We understand they are being supervised by social work specialists. We continue to encourage the Government of Bahrain to follow due process in all cases and to meet its international and domestic human rights commitments, including in the case of juveniles.

We believe the recent ratification of the Correctional Justice Act is a positive step. We note that this law will be enforced 6 months after its ratification on 18 February 2021. We understand that Article 87 will permit a Judicial Committee to hear cases and potentially replace penalties that were decided before the law was enforced. We will monitor the implementation of this new law, in light of international human rights standards.