IA 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. J. RES. 80 
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 6, 2011 
Mr. MCGOVERN introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
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 inter-
national human rights instruments, including the Inter-
national 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 nota-
ble human rights reforms during the 2000s; 
Whereas, despite those reforms, significant human rights con-
cerns remained in early 2011, including the alleged mis-
treatment of detained persons and the discrimination 
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against certain Bahraini citizens in the political, eco-
nomic, and professional spheres of Bahrain; 
Whereas this discrimination has included the banning of par-
ticular 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, Am-
nesty International, and Freedom House, found that the 
majority of protesters have been peaceful in their de-
mands, and that acts of violence by protesters have been 
rare; 
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has systematically sup-
pressed the protests through a wide range of acts consti-
tuting 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 exer-
cising their rights to freedom of expression, political opin-
ion, and assembly; 
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has continued to pros-
ecute civilians, including medical professionals, in mili-
tary-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-secu-
rity courts are insufficient to rectify the due process vio-
lations 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 tar-
geted medical personnel by abducting medical workers, 
abusing patients, intimidating wounded protesters from 
accessing medical treatment, and sentencing medical pro-
fessionals 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 dis-
proportionately 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 ret-
ribution 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 inter-
national 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 le-
gitimate criticism of political opponents towards explicitly 
and implicitly threatening the physical safety and integ-
rity of those opponents specifically and the Shi’a commu-
nity generally, creating greater animosity amongst the 
entire population and making reconciliation of all Bah-
raini citizens more difficult; 
Whereas the Government of Bahrain has expelled inter-
national journalists and stopped issuing visas to journal-
ists on grounds that do not appear to be justified by le-
gitimate 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 posi-
tive measures in recent months, including agreeing to 
allow the establishment of the Bahrain Independent Com-
mission 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 sub-
mitted 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 Sep-
tember 13, 2011, of a proposed obligation of Foreign 
Military Funds in the amount of $15,461,000 for the up-
grading 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 can-
isters used against peaceful protesters contained mark-
ings which showed they were manufactured in the United 
States; and 
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Whereas providing military equipment and provisions for up-
grades to a government that commits human rights viola-
tions 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, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. LIMITATION ON CERTAIN PROPOSED SALES OF 
DEFENSE ARTICLES AND DEFENSE SERVICES 
TO THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN. 
(a) LIMITATION.—The issuance of a letter of offer 
with respect to each proposed sale of defense articles and 
defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain referred to 
in subsection (b) is hereby prohibited unless the Secretary 
of State certifies to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 
the House of Representatives that— 
(1) the Government of Bahrain is conducting 
good faith investigations and prosecutions of alleged 
perpetrators responsible for the killing, torture, arbi-
trary detention, and other human rights violations 
committed since February 2011; 
(2) the prosecutions of alleged perpetrators in 
paragraph (1) is being carried out in transparent ju-
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dicial proceedings conducted in full accordance with 
Bahrain’s international legal obligations; 
(3) the Government of Bahrain has ceased all 
acts of torture and other inhumane treatment in its 
detention facilities; 
(4) the Government of Bahrain has released 
and withdrawn criminal charges against all individ-
uals who were peacefully exercising their right to 
freedom of expression, political opinion, and assem-
bly; 
(5) the Government of Bahrain is permitting 
nondiscriminatory medical treatment of the sick and 
injured, and is ensuring unhindered access to med-
ical care and treatment for all patients; 
(6) the Government of Bahrain is protecting all 
Shi’a mosques and religious sites and is rebuilding 
all Shi’a mosques and religious sites destroyed since 
February 2011; 
(7) the Government of Bahrain has redrawn the 
districts of the Council of Representatives (Majlis 
an-nuwab) in a proportional manner that allots the 
same number of residents, or reasonably nearly the 
same number of residents with minimal variation, 
for each district; 
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(8) the Government of Bahrain has lifted re-
strictions on government employment, including in 
the military and security forces, based on discrimi-
natory grounds such as religion and political opin-
ion; 
(9) the Government of Bahrain has reinstated 
all public and government-invested enterprises’ em-
ployees who were dismissed from their workplace for 
peacefully exercising their right to freedom of ex-
pression, political opinion, and assembly; 
(10) the Government of Bahrain has set stand-
ards for private sector compliance covering the rein-
statement of its employees who were dismissed from 
their workplace for peacefully exercising their right 
to freedom of expression, political opinion, and as-
sembly; 
(11) the Government of Bahrain is protecting 
the right of all individuals, including political oppo-
nents of the Government, to peacefully exercise their 
right to freedom of expression, political opinion, and 
assembly without fear of retribution; 
(12) the Government of Bahrain has ceased 
using the media under its control to threaten the 
physical safety and integrity of political opponents 
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and other Bahraini citizens, particularly those in the 
Shi’a community; 
(13) the Government of Bahrain is permitting 
the entry of international journalists to Bahrain ex-
cept in extremely exceptional cases where the Gov-
ernment clearly shows with evidence and in good 
faith that the entry of an international journalist is 
a legitimate safety or security concern; 
(14) the Bahrain Commission of Inquiry (BICI) 
has submitted its final report to the Government of 
Bahrain; 
(15) the BICI’s final report’s factual findings 
and conclusions are consistent with information 
known to the Secretary of State about the human 
rights violations occurring in Bahrain since Feb-
ruary 2011; 
(16) the Government of Bahrain is undertaking 
good faith implementation of all recommendations 
from the BICI’s final report that address alleged 
human rights violations by the Government of Bah-
rain since February 2011; and 
(17) the Government of Bahrain has under-
taken a good faith dialogue among all key stake-
holders in Bahrain which is producing substantive 
recommendations for genuine reforms that meet the 
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reasonable democratic aspirations of Bahrain’s citi-
zens and comply with universal human rights stand-
ards. 
(b) PROPOSED SALES OF DEFENSE ARTICLES AND 
DEFENSE SERVICES.—The proposed sales of defense arti-
cles and defense services to the Government of Bahrain 
referred to in this subsection are those specified in the 
certifications transmitted to the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the Chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate pursuant to section 36(b) 
of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2776(b)) on 
September 14, 2011 (Transmittal Number 10–71). 
Æ 
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