I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3445 
To prohibit the sale of arms to Bahrain. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. PITTS, and Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs 
A BILL 
To prohibit the sale of arms to Bahrain. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘The Bahrain Inde-
pendent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) Accountability Act 
of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The Kingdom of Bahrain is a party to sev-
eral international human rights instruments, includ-
ing the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
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Rights, adopted December 16, 1966, and entered 
into force March 23, 1976, and the Convention 
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or De-
grading Treatment or Punishment, done at New 
York December 10, 1984. 
(2) The citizens of Bahrain significantly inten-
sified their calls for government reform and respect 
for human rights in February 2011, with hundreds 
of thousands participating in nonviolent demonstra-
tions. 
(3) Article 1 of the Royal Order No. 28 of July 
1, 2011, established the Bahrain Independent Com-
mission of Inquiry (BICI) and mandated the Com-
mission ‘‘to investigate and report on the events oc-
curring in Bahrain in February/March 2011, and 
any subsequent consequences arising out of the 
aforementioned events, and to make such rec-
ommendations as it may deem appropriate’’. 
(4) The BICI was composed of well-renowned 
international human rights experts who were author-
ized to investigate human rights violations and rec-
ommend measures for accountability. 
(5) The BICI received approximately 9,000 
written complaints from both Bahraini citizens and 
foreign residents who claimed to be victims of 
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human rights violations, and the BICI conducted 
over 5,000 personal interviews with those individ-
uals. 
(6) The 503-page BICI report ‘‘investigating 
and reporting on the events that took place in Bah-
rain from February 2011, and the consequences of 
those events’’ was submitted to the Government of 
Bahrain on November 23, 2011. 
(7) The BICI report made 26 ‘‘recommenda-
tions for reconsideration of administrative and legal 
actions, and recommendations concerning the insti-
tutionalization of mechanisms designed to prevent 
the recurrence of similar events, and how to address 
them’’. 
(8) The King of Bahrain received the BICI re-
port on November 23, 2011, and pledged to ‘‘con-
ceive and implement reforms that satisfy all seg-
ments of our population’’ to achieve national rec-
onciliation. 
(9) The Department of State stated on May 11, 
2012, ‘‘While the Government of Bahrain has begun 
to take some important steps to implement the rec-
ommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commis-
sion of Inquiry report, the country is becoming in-
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creasingly polarized and much work remains to be 
done.’’. 
(10) On August 14, 2013, the Department of 
State submitted a report to Congress entitled ‘‘Im-
plementation of Recommendations by the Bahrain 
Independent Commission of Inquiry’’, which deter-
mined only 5 of the 26 recommendations of the 
BICI report to be ‘‘fully Implemented’’ by the Gov-
ernment of Bahrain. 
(11) The BICI report determined that the Bah-
rain Defence Force ‘‘was one of the main organs in-
volved in the implementation of Royal Decree No. 18 
of 2011 pursuant to which the State of National 
Safety was declared in Bahrain’’. 
(12) The BICI report found the Bahrain 
Defence Force units ‘‘holding law enforcement pow-
ers executed arrest warrants against some individ-
uals, including doctors employed by the Salmaniya 
Medical Complex (SMC) and former parliamentar-
ians’’. 
(13) Human Rights First has found that no of-
ficials from the Bahrain Defence Force have been 
held accountable for excessive use of violence against 
peaceful protesters since 2011. 
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(14) Amnesty International determined that op-
position leader Ali Salman is a prisoner of con-
science who was sentenced to four years in prison, 
after an unfair trial, on June 15, 2015. 
(15) According to the Project on Middle East 
Democracy, the Government of Bahrain summoned 
Bahraini opposition leader Khalil al-Marzooq over an 
investigation into insulting a government ministry 
and inciting hatred on June 30, 2015, and July 1, 
2015. 
(16) According to the Americans for Democracy 
and Human Rights in Bahrain, the Government of 
Bahrain re-arrested the recently released Bahraini 
opposition leader Ibrahim Sharif in connection with 
a speech in which he peacefully criticized the govern-
ment and called for political reform on July 12, 
2015. 
(17) The Department of State’s 2014 Human 
Rights Report on Bahrain released on June 25, 
2014, found, ‘‘The most serious human rights prob-
lems included . . . arrest and detention of protesters 
(some of whom were violent) on vague charges, occa-
sionally leading to their torture and mistreatment in 
detention; and lack of due process in trials of polit-
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ical and human rights activists, students, and jour-
nalists, including harsh sentences.’’. 
(18) The Department of State announced on 
June 29, 2015, the decision to lift the holds on secu-
rity assistance to the Bahrain Defence Force and 
National Guard that were implemented following 
Bahrain’s crackdown on demonstrations in 2011. 
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON SALE OF CERTAIN ARMS TO BAH-
RAIN. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, the United States Government may not sell 
or transfer to the Government of Bahrain any of the items 
set forth in subsection (b) until the Secretary of State cer-
tifies that the Government of Bahrain has fully imple-
mented all 26 recommendations set forth in the 2011 Bah-
rain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report. 
(b) PROHIBITED ITEMS.—The items referred to in 
subsection (a) are as follows: 
(1) Tear gas. 
(2) Small arms. 
(3) Light weapons. 
(4) Ammunition for small arms and light weap-
ons. 
(5) Humvees. 
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(6) Other items that could reasonably be used 
for crowd control purposes. 
Æ 
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