IIA 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. J. RES. 28 

Limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to a certain proposed 

sale of defense articles and defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 6, 2011 

Mr. WYDEN introduced the following joint resolution; which was read twice 

and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

JOINT RESOLUTION 

Limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to 

a certain proposed sale of defense articles and defense 

services to the Kingdom of Bahrain. 

Whereas the Kingdom of Bahrain is a party to several international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted 

December 16, 1966, and entered into force March 23, 

1976, and the Convention Against Torture and Other 

Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 

done at New York December 10, 1984; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain had made several notable human rights reforms during the 2000s; 

Whereas, despite those reforms, significant human rights concerns remained in early 2011, including the alleged mistreatment of detained persons and the discrimination 


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against certain Bahraini citizens in the political, economic, and professional spheres of Bahrain; 

Whereas this discrimination has included the banning of particular religious groups from holding specific government 

positions, including the military and security services, 

without reasonable justification; 

Whereas hundreds of thousands of protesters in the Kingdom 

of Bahrain have significantly intensified their calls for 

government reform and respect for human rights starting 

in February 2011; 

Whereas independent observers, including the Department of 

State, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, Amnesty International, and Freedom House, found that the 

majority of protesters have been peaceful in their demands, and that acts of violence by protesters have been 

rare; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain has systematically suppressed the protests through a wide range of acts constituting serious and grave violations of human rights; 

Whereas, according to the Project of Middle East Democracy, 

at least 32 people have been killed by the Government of 

Bahrain’s security forces since February 2011; 

Whereas at least three deaths occurred while the individuals 

were in detention, according to the Ministry of Interior 

of the Government of Bahrain; 

Whereas there have been credible reports from Human 

Rights Watch, Human Rights First, Physicians for 

Human Rights, and the Bahrain Center for Human 

Rights of severe mistreatment of detainees, including acts 

rising to the level of torture; 


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Whereas the Government of Bahrain has investigated and 

prosecuted individuals who were only peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, political opinion, and assembly; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain has continued to prosecute civilians, including medical professionals, in military-security courts; 

Whereas cases continued to be tried in the military-security 

courts despite promises by the Government of Bahrain to 

transfer those cases to civilian venues; 

Whereas the military-security courts’ procedures and actions 

severely limited due process rights or complied with due 

process formally rather than substantively; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain’s recent promises to 

have civilian courts hear the appeals from military-security courts are insufficient to rectify the due process violations that occurred at the trial stage; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain has moved quickly to 

prosecute and sentence political opponents to lengthy 

prison terms, while at the same time slowly investigating, 

or failing to investigate at all, government and security 

officials who appear to have committed or assisted in 

human rights violations against political opponents; 

Whereas Physicians for Human Rights has documented that 

the Government of Bahrain’s security forces have targeted medical personnel by abducting medical workers, 

abusing patients, intimidating wounded protesters from 

accessing medical treatment, and sentencing medical professionals to lengthy prison terms in the military-security 

courts for protesting the government’s interference in 

treating injured protesters; 


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Whereas the Government of Bahrain has destroyed more 

than 40 Shi’a mosques and religious sites throughout 

Bahrain since February 2011; 

Whereas Bahrain’s legislative lower house, the Council of 

Representatives (Majlis an-nuwab) is constituted of disproportionately drawn districts that violates the principle 

of equal suffrage for Bahraini citizens, particularly the 

Shi’a community; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain employed tactics of retribution against perceived political opponents, dismissing 

more than 2,500 workers, academics, medics, and other 

professionals from their places of employment; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain has violated international labor standards through the dismissals of the 

aforementioned citizens; 

Whereas the Department of Labor has received an official 

complaint regarding the failure of the Government of 

Bahrain to live up to its commitments with respect to 

workers’ rights under its Free Trade Agreement with the 

United States; 

Whereas the state-run media of Bahrain have gone beyond legitimate criticism of political opponents towards explicitly 

and implicitly threatening the physical safety and integrity of those opponents specifically and the Shi’a community generally, creating greater animosity amongst the 

entire population and making reconciliation of all Bahraini citizens more difficult; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain has expelled international journalists and stopped issuing visas to journalists on grounds that do not appear to be justified by legitimate safety or security concerns; 


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Whereas the Department of State included Bahrain among a 

list of countries necessitating additional human rights 

scrutiny in a June 15, 2011, submission to the United 

Nations Human Rights Council; 

Whereas the Government of Bahrain has taken limited positive measures in recent months, including agreeing to 

allow the establishment of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) composed of well-renowned 

international human rights experts who are authorized to 

investigate human rights violations and recommend 

measures for accountability; 

Whereas the BICI human rights report is due to be submitted to the Government of Bahrain on October 30, 

2011; 

Whereas the Department of Defense notified Congress on 

September 14, 2011, of a proposed military arms sale to 

Bahrain worth approximately $53,000,000; 

Whereas the Department of State notified Congress on September 13, 2011, of a proposed obligation of Foreign 

Military Funds in the amount of $15,461,000 for the upgrading and maintenance of certain military equipment; 

Whereas other military allies of the United States, including 

the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Belgium, have 

suspended or limited certain licenses and arms sales to 

Bahrain since February 2011; 

Whereas evidence gathered from protesters by the Bahrain 

Center for Human Rights indicated that tear gas canisters used against peaceful protesters contained markings which showed they were manufactured in the United 

States; and 


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Whereas providing military equipment and provisions for upgrades to a government that commits human rights violations and that has undertaken insufficient measures to 

seek reform and accountability is at odds with United 

States foreign policy goals of promoting democracy, 

human rights, accountability, and stability: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives

2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. LIMITATION ON CERTAIN PROPOSED SALES OF 

4 DEFENSE ARTICLES AND DEFENSE SERVICES 

5 TO THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN. 

6 (a) LIMITATION.—The issuance of a letter of offer 

7 with respect to each proposed sale of defense articles and 

8 defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain referred to 

9 in subsection (b) is hereby prohibited unless the Secretary 

10 of State certifies to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

11 of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

12 the House of Representatives that— 

13 (1) the Government of Bahrain is conducting 

14 good faith investigations and prosecutions of alleged 

15 perpetrators responsible for the killing, torture, arbi16 trary detention, and other human rights violations 

17 committed since February 2011; 

18 (2) the prosecutions of alleged perpetrators in 

19 paragraph (1) is being carried out in transparent juVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:44 Oct 07, 2011 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SJ28.IS SJ28

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1 dicial proceedings conducted in full accordance with 

2 Bahrain’s international legal obligations; 

3 (3) the Government of Bahrain has ceased all 

4 acts of torture and other inhumane treatment in its 

5 detention facilities; 

6 (4) the Government of Bahrain has released 

7 and withdrawn criminal charges against all individ8 uals who were peacefully exercising their right to 

9 freedom of expression, political opinion, and assem10 bly; 

11 (5) the Government of Bahrain is permitting 

12 nondiscriminatory medical treatment of the sick and 

13 injured, and is ensuring unhindered access to med14 ical care and treatment for all patients; 

15 (6) the Government of Bahrain is protecting all 

16 Shi’a mosques and religious sites and is rebuilding 

17 all Shi’a mosques and religious sites destroyed since 

18 February 2011; 

19 (7) the Government of Bahrain has redrawn the 

20 districts of the Council of Representatives (Majlis 

21 an-nuwab) in a proportional manner that allots the 

22 same number of residents, or reasonably nearly the 

23 same number of residents with minimal variation, 

24 for each district; 


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1 (8) the Government of Bahrain has lifted re2 strictions on government employment, including in 

3 the military and security forces, based on discrimi4 natory grounds such as religion and political opin5 ion; 

6 (9) the Government of Bahrain has reinstated 

7 all public and government-invested enterprises’ em8 ployees who were dismissed from their workplace for 

9 peacefully exercising their right to freedom of ex10 pression, political opinion, and assembly; 

11 (10) the Government of Bahrain has set stand12 ards for private sector compliance covering the rein13 statement of its employees who were dismissed from 

14 their workplace for peacefully exercising their right 

15 to freedom of expression, political opinion, and as16 sembly; 

17 (11) the Government of Bahrain is protecting 

18 the right of all individuals, including political oppo19 nents of the Government, to peacefully exercise their 

20 right to freedom of expression, political opinion, and 

21 assembly without fear of retribution; 

22 (12) the Government of Bahrain has ceased 

23 using the media under its control to threaten the 

24 physical safety and integrity of political opponents 


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1 and other Bahraini citizens, particularly those in the 

2 Shi’a community; 

3 (13) the Government of Bahrain is permitting 

4 the entry of international journalists to Bahrain ex5 cept in extremely exceptional cases where the Gov6 ernment clearly shows with evidence and in good 

7 faith that the entry of an international journalist is 

8 a legitimate safety or security concern; 

9 (14) the Bahrain Commission of Inquiry (BICI) 

10 has submitted its final report to the Government of 

11 Bahrain; 

12 (15) the BICI’s final report’s factual findings 

13 and conclusions are consistent with information 

14 known to the Secretary of State about the human 

15 rights violations occurring in Bahrain since Feb16 ruary 2011; 

17 (16) the Government of Bahrain is undertaking 

18 good faith implementation of all recommendations 

19 from the BICI’s final report that address alleged 

20 human rights violations by the Government of Bah21 rain since February 2011; and 

22 (17) the Government of Bahrain has under23 taken a good faith dialogue among all key stake24 holders in Bahrain which is producing substantive 

25 recommendations for genuine reforms that meet the 


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1 reasonable democratic aspirations of Bahrain’s citi2 zens and comply with universal human rights stand3 ards. 

4 (b) PROPOSED SALES OF DEFENSE ARTICLES AND

5 DEFENSE SERVICES.—The proposed sales of defense arti6 cles and defense services to the Government of Bahrain 

7 referred to in this subsection are those specified in the 

8 certifications transmitted to the Speaker of the House of 

9 Representatives and the Chairman of the Committee on 

10 Foreign Relations of the Senate pursuant to section 36(b) 

11 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2776(b)) on 

12 September 14, 2011 (Transmittal Number 10–71). 

Æ 


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