II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2009 

To prohibit the sale of arms to Bahrain. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 6, 2015 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. RUBIO) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To prohibit the sale of arms to Bahrain. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘The Bahrain Inde5 pendent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) Accountability Act 

6 of 2015’’. 

7 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

8 Congress makes the following findings: 

9 (1) The Kingdom of Bahrain is a party to sev10 eral international human rights instruments, includ11 ing the International Covenant on Civil and Political 

12 Rights, adopted December 16, 1966, and entered 


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1 into force March 23, 1976, and the Convention 

2 Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or De3 grading Treatment or Punishment, done at New 

4 York, December 10, 1984. 

5 (2) The citizens of Bahrain significantly inten6 sified their calls for government reform and respect 

7 for human rights in February 2011, with hundreds 

8 of thousands participating in nonviolent demonstra9 tions. 

10 (3) Article 1 of the Royal Order No. 28 of July 

11 1, 2011, established the Bahrain Independent Com12 mission of Inquiry (BICI) and mandated the Com13 mission ‘‘to investigate and report on the events oc14 curring in Bahrain in February/March 2011, and 

15 any subsequent consequences arising out of the 

16 aforementioned events, and to make such rec17 ommendations as it may deem appropriate’’. 

18 (4) The BICI was composed of well-renowned 

19 international human rights experts who were author20 ized to investigate human rights violations and rec21 ommend measures for accountability. 

22 (5) The BICI received approximately 9,000 

23 written complaints from both Bahraini citizens and 

24 foreign residents who claimed to be victims of 

25 human rights violations, and the BICI conducted 


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1 over 5,000 personal interviews with those individ2 uals. 

3 (6) The 503-page BICI report ‘‘investigating 

4 and reporting on the events that took place in Bah5 rain from February 2011, and the consequences of 

6 those events’’ was submitted to the Government of 

7 Bahrain on November 23, 2011. 

8 (7) The BICI report made 26 ‘‘recommenda9 tions for reconsideration of administrative and legal 

10 actions, and recommendations concerning the insti11 tutionalization of mechanisms designed to prevent 

12 the recurrence of similar events, and how to address 

13 them’’. 

14 (8) The King of Bahrain received the BICI re15 port on November 23, 2011, and pledged to ‘‘con16 ceive and implement reforms that satisfy all seg17 ments of our population’’ to achieve national rec18 onciliation. 

19 (9) The Department of State stated on May 11, 

20 2012, ‘‘While the Government of Bahrain has begun 

21 to take some important steps to implement the rec22 ommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commis23 sion of Inquiry report, the country is becoming in24 creasingly polarized and much work remains to be 

25 done.’’. 


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1 (10) On August 14, 2013, the Department of 

2 State submitted a report to Congress entitled ‘‘Im3 plementation of Recommendations by the Bahrain 

4 Independent Commission of Inquiry’’, which deter5 mined only 5 of the 26 recommendations of the 

6 BICI report to be ‘‘fully Implemented’’ by the Gov7 ernment of Bahrain. 

8 (11) The BICI report determined that the Bah9 rain Defence Force ‘‘was one of the main organs in10 volved in the implementation of Royal Decree No. 18 

11 of 2011 pursuant to which the State of National 

12 Safety was declared in Bahrain’’. 

13 (12) The BICI report found the Bahrain 

14 Defence Force units ‘‘holding law enforcement pow15 ers executed arrest warrants against some individ16 uals, including doctors employed by the Salmaniya 

17 Medical Complex (SMC) and former parliamentar18 ians’’. 

19 (13) Human Rights First has found that no of20 ficials from the Bahrain Defence Force have been 

21 held accountable for excessive use of violence against 

22 peaceful protesters since 2011. 

23 (14) Amnesty International determined that op24 position leader Ali Salman is a prisoner of conVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:14 Aug 13, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2009.IS S2009

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1 science who was sentenced to four years in prison, 

2 after an unfair trial, on June 15, 2015. 

3 (15) According to the Project on Middle East 

4 Democracy, the Government of Bahrain summoned 

5 Bahraini opposition leader Khalil al-Marzooq over an 

6 investigation into insulting a government ministry 

7 and inciting hatred on June 30, 2015, and July 1, 

8 2015. 

9 (16) According to the Americans for Democracy 

10 and Human Rights in Bahrain, the Government of 

11 Bahrain re-arrested the recently released Bahraini 

12 opposition leader Ibrahim Sharif in connection with 

13 a speech in which he peacefully criticized the govern14 ment and called for political reform on July 12, 

15 2015. 

16 (17) The Department of State’s 2014 Human 

17 Rights Report on Bahrain released on June 25, 

18 2014, found, ‘‘The most serious human rights prob19 lems included . . . arrest and detention of protesters 

20 (some of whom were violent) on vague charges, occa21 sionally leading to their torture and mistreatment in 

22 detention; and lack of due process in trials of polit23 ical and human rights activists, students, and jour24 nalists, including harsh sentences.’’. 


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1 (18) The Department of State announced on 

2 June 29, 2015, the decision to lift the holds on secu3 rity assistance to the Bahrain Defence Force and 

4 National Guard that were implemented following 

5 Bahrain’s crackdown on demonstrations in 2011. 

6 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON SALE OF CERTAIN ARMS TO BAH7 RAIN. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi9 sion of law, the United States Government may not sell 

10 or transfer to the Government of Bahrain any of the items 

11 set forth in subsection (b) until the Secretary of State cer12 tifies that the Government of Bahrain has fully imple13 mented all 26 recommendations set forth in the 2011 Bah14 rain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report. 

15 (b) PROHIBITED ITEMS.—The items referred to in 

16 subsection (a) are as follows: 

17 (1) Tear gas. 

18 (2) Small arms. 

19 (3) Light weapons. 

20 (4) Ammunition for small arms and light weap21 ons. 

22 (5) Humvees. 

23 (6) Other items that could reasonably be used 

24 for crowd control purposes. 

Æ 


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