Reprieve and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)’s data on the use of the death penalty in Bahrain in the decade from 2011 through to the start of 2021 shows that the use of the death penalty has dramatically escalated since the Arab Spring protests in 2011.
In parallel, according to the data, the use of torture – particularly in ‘terrorism-related’ death penalty cases – was endemic, despite significant ongoing funding and public support from the UK public and private sectors dedicated to torture reform since 2011.
The reality of the use of the death penalty and torture in Bahrain as set out in this report is in stark contrast to the promises of human rights reform made by Bahrain in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, as well as to the narrative that Bahrain and its allies, particularly the UK, have promoted about the Bahraini reform agenda and progress on human rights in the past decade.
