The Kingdom of Bahrain ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UN-CAC) on 8 February 2005, which obligates the country to take steps to counter all forms of governmental corruption, including fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement, and illicit enrichment. Despite the government’s ratification of the treaty, however, ADHRB has been unable to monitor any significant progress towards the development of anti-corruption laws or an anti-corruption framework. In fact, we have documented much the opposite: that Bahraini governmental corruption runs unchecked, with the royal family routinely using governmental coffers as if they were their personal bank accounts.
In support of this statement, ADHRB has authored the following report, which details not only Bahrain’s obligations under the UN-CAC, but also analyzes how the government has failed to implement, legislate, or otherwise follow up on its commitments. In particular, our report shows that the government failed to pass vital sections of the UN-CAC into domestic legislation, allowed members of the royal family to pilfer public accounts, and punished civil society watchdogs that might have otherwise been able to prevent the Bahraini public from fraud. Our report leads us to one conclusion: thje appears to not be a drawback in Bahrain, but rather a feature.
You may read the full report HERE.
